Living the Unfinished Story: A Scare in Nashville and Illusion In Fort Walton

A phone call or text can change things fast. I was on a mini vacation visiting my aunt and uncle with my friend Sherri, hanging out on the lake when I got bad news by text: my friend Auny Gill had been put in the hospital because she kept passing out and needed a blood transfusion. I can remember thinking, "What?! Auny?" Suddenly, I became very scared. I began praying for her.... As I was asked to pray, I was also asked something else: if I was available to travel as an illusionist's assistant for the next two weeks.

Let me explain. Auny was put in the hospital the same weekend she and her husband and my friend Brock Gill were supposed to leave for Fort Walton. Brock is a Christian illusionist and Auny is his stage assistant. Each year, they perform at SuperWOW in Fort Walton, and they were getting ready to leave when Auny became really sick. Brock and John (Brock's road manager) asked me if I was available to travel to help on stage and off for a couple weeks, and I quickly got on the phone with my director at Tennessee Dance Arts Conservatory. I told her the emergency, and my director Megan, being as cool as she is, let me take two weeks off teaching to help my friends out. I hopped in the car and drove home quickly to prepare for the trip... Brock, John, and I hit the road to Florida the next day, and it felt so weird leaving Auny behind.

So within 24 hours, I was helping in illusion, which as much as I love magic, I couldn't complain... plus it was on the beach.... but I was just worried about my friend Auny back in Nashville. A few days later, our friends Jacob and Kayla came down and brought Auny, who'd been released from the hospital after the transfusion and testing. Now that she was with us, we felt a great relief, and she was able to rest and regain strength. She found out she was anemic and needed iron in her body. We went to get red meat often, which meant several trips to McGuire's, an amazing Irish Pub with the world's most amazing burgers (and I'm pretty picky about burgers)... Within a few days, she was doing so much better, thankfully.

I love illusion, and absolutely loved working with them. They are amazing people, and there is something about the mystery of magic that sparks the imagination, and it was cool learning from friends while in Florida! It began with a scare, but I feel like the Lord taught me some valuable lessons those two weeks. What is even better, the other day Auny told me her iron levels are miraculously normal now.

Something else interesting about being in Fort Walton during this time was the oil crisis of 2010 was happening while we were there. We hit the beach nearly every day during our off time... we saw some oil "droplets", if you will, but nothing drastic in Fort Walton and Destin. We got lucky, I suppose, and crews would clean up the oil that was washed ashore at night so we could still enjoy the beaches during the day.

Below are a few pictures from the trip.