Meeting Larry Hagman: 2008 NKF Transplant Games
Pittsburgh, PA
The 2008 National Kidney Foundation Transplant Games were held in Pittsburgh, PA from July 11-July 16. I drove to Pittsburgh with my friend Maria on Friday July 11th. Larry was scheduled to appear at the games on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, after breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the convention center to try to find Larry, who was supposed to be signing autographs. The people at information were clueless, but we eventually ran into someone who had seen him. She told us he was in the registration area earlier, but wasn't there the last time she passed by. They wouldn't let us in the registration area. We got wristbands for the day, which I don't think would get us in there either, but this time there was an old man at the entrance, and he was looking the other way, so we just walked in. We found Larry's booth, but no Larry, just the remnants of his breakfast. The man in the next booth said Larry and Maj were only there for two hours, then left. The last time Maria went to the Transplant Games, he had stayed the whole time talking to people. Another woman came by and said she saw Larry earlier and he looked "like death" then started talking about a girl who had two heart transplants and looked wonderful. Does it make sense to compare a child to a 76 year old man and say the child looks better? Still, that had us worried, knowing how much Larry likes to meet fans and other transplant recipients as well as donor families. There was all sorts of free stuff being given away, so we stuck around collecting souvenirs, hoping Larry would come back, but he didn't. We headed back to the hotel to drop off our bounty.
The Opening Ceremony was to start at 7:30, doors opening at 6:30, first come, first serve seating. In other words, a mob scene. We got there very early. The wall was lined with doors, and the crowd grew very large. Naturally, they only opened one door, and it was not the one in front of us! We managed to squeeze our way into the one open door and find some nice seats. The closest seats, folding chairs on the floor, where reserved for the athletes and special guests. We knew floor seating would be unacceptable for photos, so we headed for the bleachers. I found a seat on the end, one row up, that gave me a great view of the stage. We were not close, but with my huge 400mm lens on a monopod, it was perfect.
We spotted Maj walking to her seat up front. I watched the gear while Maria went to talk to her. We knew it would be next to impossible to get to Larry after the ceremony because of all of the people, so we had to know his schedule for Sunday. Maria came back, she said she got to meet the family of Larry's liver donor! Maj wanted to help us, but didn't know the next day's schedule.
The ceremony started with several people, Larry included, holding up a Transplant Games banner, followed by a parade of athletes from all over the country. They entered the arena, and went to their seats. We cheered for our local teams, or tried! It was sometimes hard to figure out which one applied to us. Anything around New York City or Philadelphia would do for me! Team Liberty was New York and New Jersey. Team Philadelphia was the largest. Next, speeches mixed with entertainment. There were many singers, all either transplant recipients, living donors, or family members of a recipient or donor. They were all talented, but one woman in particular stood out for me, Bonnie Nichols. She is a singer/songwriter and has a CD available. She sang a song about organ donation that was very good! Her husband died at 40 and was a donor.
Larry's speech was very entertaining, no surprise there. And he did not look "like death"! He was happy and energetic as usual. Larry introduced the oldest and youngest participants in the games, 80 and two respectively. He really got the crowd going by asking people who have had their transplants for 50, 30, 20, down to recent recipients to stand up in turn. After he sat down (still on stage) there were other speeches, including one really sad one by a woman who is waiting for a liver and has had 14 calls for a possible transplant that did not match for various reasons. Larry spoke again later. He asked all transplant recipients to show their scars to their neighbors on the count of five, then tossed his suspenders aside and pulled up his shirt! Larry's scars look like a peace sign!
When the event was over, we started to work our way to the stage. No one was stopping people from going up there. But when we were almost there, Larry disappeared. Just vanished. We looked backstage, nothing. We found the reporter who was a co-host of the ceremonies and asked her if she knew Larry's schedule for Sunday. She found another reporter. "Didn't you get the press kit?" he asked. He told us Larry was going to be at the swimming competition on Sunday, Carnegie Mellon University, 11am. We thanked him and left.
That night, I had a dream that we met Larry. We got to Carnegie Mellon around 9am, found the pool. There was only one non-athlete entrance, so we decided to stake out the hall. But first breakfast. On the way to the coffee shop in the building, I looked at a clock in the hallway. 9:21, Larry's birthday! A good omen? We went back downstairs, and ate in a room with a view of the pool. No sign of Larry. We stayed around the pool the entire time. 11am came and went. Then noon. A man who looked to be with the media came by. He was from a local TV station. Maria asked if he knew if Larry was supposed to be here. He said yes, he's down the hall!
He wasn't going to watch the swimmers, he was handing out medals! Of course, he came in the back entrance to that area, so we didn't see him. We probably should have stayed outside! We walked into the room and Larry was right there, taking photos with athletes and putting medals around their necks, clearly enjoying himself! We talked to Maj, watched Larry and took photos. Larry was about to leave when I stopped him and asked if we could gat some quick photos. He said yes. I can't help it, it's a habit by now - I put my head on his chest. He chuckled, pulled me closer, and rested his head on mine! Next, I took the photo of Larry with Maria in her camera. Then they left.
We watched them go down a hall that led to the pool. Going out the athlete's entrance, or watching the games? We went down a parallel hallway to the exit, not far from the athlete's entrance to the pool. No sign of Larry or Maj. We went up to the pool entrance and looked in. We didn't see him, so we went back inside and entered the pool area from the spectator entrance. Still no Larry. He vanished again! I'm starting to think the man really does have a genie! Duck into a room and blink away!
But we got what we came for. Larry's time was obviously tightly scheduled, and we were lucky we even got to say hello! As an added bonus, we got to meet so many nice people and see first hand the health and vitality of transplant recipients. Seeing so many people in one place, including Larry Hagman, who would be dead if not for an organ transplant was very moving.
For the complete story of a series of Larry Hagman events, see About This Site.