I left my heart....

I Left My Heart…

Killing time waiting for prescriptions to be phone in and filled, I decided to go to the Avi. It’s an Indian casino on the shore of the Colorado River and you can get a dog and a beer for a buck, plus lie on the beach, if nobody asks what room you are in. I quietly wondered whom I would meet that needed some encouragement and chose to  leave my Gospel of John in the car. I could come back…Quick prayer for being in touch with the Holy Spirit.  I was going in with minimal supplies. AVI card, a few bucks and an appetite. When you wan a hot dog, you want a hot dog and theirs are plump and juicy. I ain’t getting skinnier, by the way. Taylors keep me well fed. I’ll work out tomorrow.

After I polished off the hot dog, I made my way past one of the lounges enroute to the pool/beach area and overheard Tony Bennett – Must be a recording or someone is warming up for an evening show. I decided to peek in and see this handsome hunk on stage, crooning to many of he old favorites that my parents (all four of them) would sing. This guy has a voice! The crowd was about what you could count on one hand and I listened to him for a good part of an hour. The warm beach was calling so I went out, took a power nap, made a sand angel and headed back in. His voice drew me in again….

At the end of his several hours behind the mic, he asked the dozen or so folks if he could take a break. He has some neuropathy from a cancer he had in his foot and thanks to God, he proclaimed that he has been spared. They had given him 8 weeks to live.. Hmmm. I wanted to know more.

He came down into the lounge area and was telling his story to a couple and I butted in to say “I want to know what God did.” Well, he and I talked for quite awhile… He’s very grateful. Changed his life. Mark O ‘Toole is a new man, grateful. True, he is easy on the eyes, for sure! Well, he wanted to show me a photo on his phone that was taken in Hawaii recently/ He had a friend die from AIDS and went to pay tribute. He said he always felt a certain presence anytime he went over to the islands. The photo he showed me was amazing. It was just him and this shaft of light just adjacent to him, from head to toe and about as wide. It was the second photo taken as his mistakenly deleted the first one, which was of him but there were dots of light all around him. He looks at me. “What do you think it is?”  Uh-Like I know? I don’t know.

I asked if he attends church and he doesn’t but is eager to work on his relationship with God. Hence, the open door question “Can I give you a gift of the Gospel of John?” He was enthusiastic about it. He gave me his card, asked me to get in touch wih him on FACEBOOK.

I told him I thought it was Tony Bennett singing. He blushed. The story I relayed to him was about finding my birth family 7 years ago and though my mother is deceased, she loved to sing and would entertain the troops in SF. My sister and I went to see Tony sing a few years ago and she looked at me and said all teary-eyed, “Our mother must be looking down on us so amazed. If only she were here!”  

He gets up on stage and the audience is about 25 people by now and says “I want to dedicate this song to Susan.”   You guessed it…

When he got to the well known phrase, “I left my heart in San Francisco…” I couldn’t keep the tears back. I miss my mother, my sister…part of me is certainly still there.

Mark did an incredible performance on the song, looking at me like we were the only two in the room. A true crooner! He apologized after it was over saying “Sorry I couldn’t get the higher notes but it’s hard when I get choked up.”  He winked and smiled at me… my mascara was probably all over my face by now. My heart melted down into my shoes. I was like butter.

Sweet.

I hurried out to the 4 Runner and brought him back the Gospel of John.. the best gift I can give him. He was singing but had the bartender hand it to him and he put it on his table..If you think of it, pray for the handsome, talented Mark O’Toole who has been clearly given a second chance. He made a pact with the LORD that he would sing in children’s hospitals and old folks homes if God spared his life and He did. Mark can’t much feel his feet so it’s an item for prayer. He has a CD coming out next month. Yep. I

will be looking for it!

Ya never know what a day will bring. It was a good day, a good dog, a good song and a fine man. In more ways than one! Ha!

Go get ‘em, Mark. One step at a time.