Meeting Maria

I've been a Maria Shriver fan since a night in the early 80's when I bumped into her as I was taking my mom's luggage out of the back seat of my Honda at Honolulu International Airport. It was late because Mom was taking the red-eye back to Los Angeles. I wore a long, blue and white floral print muu-muu. I proceeded to step on the hem of my muu-muu as I tried to negotiate the curb with the gigantic red hardback suitcase. I dropped the bag, fell forward a bit and was saved from doing a complete swan dive onto the pavement by a uniformed driver who caught my right arm as I brushed against a very thin girl with long hair. A man with a thick accent said, "Are you ok?" I said yes, and looked up to see the foreigner picking up Mom's bag was Arnold Schwarzenegger and the thin girl was Maria Shriver. I blurted something about being sorry and they just smiled.

As Maria and Arnold walked toward the terminal with a porter, my mother stood there saying, "That's Maria Kennedy and the big barbarian, did you notice?" She repeated it a couple more times till I almost picked up her bag and threw it at her. In 2003, Mom and I laughed out loud recalling the "bumping and blurting" incident as I sat at my parents' kitchen table helping Mom cast her absentee vote for Schwarzenegger in the California gubernatorial election.

Maria seemed nice. That was important to me in those days when I was meeting lots of celebrities in Hawaii, and some of them were NOT nice. I enjoyed her reports on TV news and loved her first book, Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World (2000), which was given to me by my mom. When Maria's daddy, Sargent Shriver, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I became more interested in the disease and what was being done to find a cure. And of course, now I work for Silverado Senior Living, an innovative company dedicated to changing the world of Alzheimer's care for the better.

For the past five years, I've tried to purchase tickets to the California Women's Conference, hosted by First Lady Maria Shriver. Sadly, I'm never fast enough. Tickets sell out in 15 minutes on Ticketmaster. I don't know anyone connected with the conference who had access to tickets. But this year right after the tickets sold out during the summer, something magical happened. First, I was able to get two tickets to A Night at the Village, a special conference event featuring some of my current favorite celebrities - the chefs of the Food Network. When I saw that Paula Deen would be there, I had to get tickets. I called my daughter-in-law, Emilie, and invited her to go with me.

Second, the next day, I got a Google Alert about a new event Maria Shriver was hosting, "Maria's March on Alzheimer's." I called to find out how Silverado might get involved. Long story short, our company was the first sponsor signed. We became the "March Champion" and pulled together a team of marchers for the event. In the meantime, I worked to ensure the new book by Silverado's co-founders, The Silverado Story - A Memory Care Culture Where Love is Greater than Fear, would be published in time for National Alzheimer's Awareness Month in November.

Cut to October 24th, the big day of Maria's March. I joined the 50+ marchers from Silverado in Long Beach. We had a Silverado booth that was next to Skechers and not too far from Jamba Juice. A big crowd had gathered for the 5K. What fun to see Maria Shriver and her daughter, Katherine, on the lagoon walkway behind our booth. And what MORE fun it was to have Maria come into our booth, shake hands with me, thank us for participating, and politely accept the new book by Loren Shook and Steve Winner. She turned around and posed for photos with Silverado march organizers Carilyn Long, her son, Corey, and Robyn Phillips.

While at the March that day, observing Maria interacting with Arnold and other celebrities, I remembered that near-accident at Honolulu Airport 25 years or so ago. I thought about my sweet, funny mom who would have loved being at the March with me. Maria lost her mom, Eunice Shriver, a year ago and I lost mine last January. I thought about how people move in and out of our lives and how it's funny the way life places us in the right place at the right time when we simply allow it to happen.

The next night, Emilie and I went to A Night at the Village. When we entered the Convention Center, we received a beautiful big silver bag with "IT'S TIME" on the side printed in lavendar. We shopped, had a glass of wine, listened to Megan and Cindy McCain on one stage, then watched Maria interact with Paula Deen, Giada Di Laurentis, Ali Wentworth and Jessica Simpson on another stage. While walking across the Village floor, we literally bumped into Iron Chef Cat Cora, who agreed to a quick photo with Emilie. Another fun accidental bump incident! It was a delightful, exciting night. Next year, Emilie and I hope to be fast enough to get tickets to the conference.

Thank you, Maria, for hosting awesome events every year and for just being yourself while serving as our First Lady. You're way beyond nice....you're an inspiration!