In 2014, I was crowd control for Fantasmic. I was standing at the top rows for Villians, all the way over by Ursula seating. After we usher everyone in, we stay in our areas to assist guests in what ever way needed even during the show. While the boys were out doing the preshow, I noticed a lady, not quite elderly, I’d like to say a “young elderly”, standing a few steps below me holding her back looking around.
I approached her and asked her if she needed help finding something, or if she was just waiting for someone. She told me no, her back was just hurting because she can’t sit in bleacher seats. Without hesitation, I asked her if it would be offensive of me to go get her a wheelchair, and then I could let her pick an available spot for handicap viewing. It’s a social norm at Disney, it’s not a huge deal to get a free wheel chair, or to offer somebody the use of one so I didn’t think much of it. She said not at all, so I asked the cast members at the sections on both side of me to cover while I ran to the bottom of the hill to get a wheel chair.
Got it, drug it all the way up, found her and asked her how many we’d be accommodating. She just looked at me and quietly said “Just me.“
With a smile, I took her over to a spot. She thanked me and asked how to get the chair back to me, and I told her I promised I’d be back for her before the show was over so she could just go along her way.
Well, a fight broke out in my section and I had to run for management and security. By the time that was sorted, the show was over, and I had to walk against a sea of people to find my friend and assist her one last time by taking back the wheel chair for her. When I finally got to her on the other side of the stadium, she broke down crying on my shoulder thanking me for what I had done.
She said she was all alone because her husband had died the year prior, it was her birthday that day, she drove five hours JUST to see Fantasmic and didn’t think she’d make it through the pre-show from her back surgery pains. Most of all, she was happy she made a friend. The lady next to her exchanged mail box numbers with her so they could write letters to each other. Then she stopped and said, “No, I made two friends.” She worried I wasn’t coming back to find her, and she took my hands into hers.
I had no idea a wheel chair was going to affect anybody that much. I don’t know her name. She was out of state, so maybe from Georgia. This happened early spring/late winter.
I just wish I could find somebody who knows her and can get me back to her. It kills me thinking of such a sweet person feeling alone.
(If you might know who this woman is, send me a PM!)
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