Meet Matthew. Matthew made our trip to the most magical place on Earth an out of this world experience!
So, as I alluded in my post about our trip to Disney, this deserves its own post. I hope you agree.
First, a little backstory:
Anyone who has spent time with Holly knows of her obsession with cats. She LOVES them. When she was 15 months old, we were at Disney store and she tried stuffing as many Marie stuffed animals as she could into our stroller so we could apparently take them home. I missed putting one up so it came home with us. That was 2005.... Marie (or Cleo as Holly calls her) has been a constant friend for Holly. As time has passed, Cleo doesn't make it into as many pictures as she used to, but she has been all over the world with us.
So, for a kid who has LOVED Marie all of her life, you can just imagine what it would mean to meet her in real life.
Last Thursday, we searched in vain for Marie at all the parks we visited. We were told she was at Epcot, so we searched at Epcot for her. No luck! I visited Guest Services at Epcot to get the scoop and they told me that she was at the flagpole in the Magic Kingdom. We hustled over there and no dice -- she was no where to be seen. Instead of running around the park looking, I had the foresight to visit Guest Services. That's where we met Matthew.
Poor Matthew had the unfortunate job of telling us that Marie had "been called to dinner and a bath by Duchess" but that she would be back out to play tomorrow. When Holly heard, her little face just broke. You see, we knew that this was our last day in the park. She put a good face on and said okay, thank you and went to sit quietly on the bench. Matthew looked at me and said, oh no, what?
So I explained. I told him about how much Holly LOVES Marie. I told him that we had visited the Magic Kingdom numerous times and never knew she was out visiting. Then I told him that this was our last day in the park for this trip. He looked at Holly and just knew her heart was breaking. He asked if we lived in the local area, to which I told him we were in from Washington state. He noticed I had a button on for my graduation and asked about that. I told him about my graduation ceremony the next day. He asked who all was coming, and I explained my family is coming but my husband won't as he is deployed. He took a long hard look at us, and looked at Holly over there trying to be brave and trying not to cry. He quietly took my hand and said, okay, give me just a few minutes and disappeared into the back. When he came back out, nearly skipping he said he was going to work some magic for us but that it would take a while, about 30 mins or so but to come back and see him. He took my name and address and sent us out to Main street.
We watched flag retreat and did a little shopping in the Emporium. When we walked back in to Guest Services 30 minutes later, Matthew was working on a computer and waved me right over. Just in time he said with a big smile on his face. He asked how many folks were coming to my graduation and our pertinent information. Then he called the girls up for the Magic:
He had arranged for us to have one more day in the Magic Kingdom!!! Complete with a "front of line" pass for Marie. He had even given us two more tickets for my parents to join us. I teared up immediately. I don't think he knew what he had done for my sweet Holly... and I couldn't get around to him quick enough to hug the life out of him. He made me promise to come back in the next day to show him the pictures with Marie and of my graduation. Then off we went to Epcot, with a little more pep in our step.
On Saturday, we were on a time crunch. Matthew told me that Marie is only out until 2 pm, but would go in if there was significant rain. We had a nice lunch and then ran for the park. As soon as we got through the gates, we went straight for the flag pole.
And there she was! In all her white, fluffy gloriousness!!!!! Holly could barely contain her excitement as we walked straight to the front of the line to meet her.
Then we stopped by Guest Services to see Matthew. He said hey, meet me outside. I said okay.... And then this happened:
He lined us all up.... And then announced to everyone passing by that my name was Chris. and I had just graduated from college. It was a party -- complete with cheers from random strangers and Mickey shaped confetti. He had made buttons for all of us saying I had graduated (the girls' read my mom just graduated, my parents' read my daughter just graduated). He then gave us three fast passes to ride the heck out of the rides!
"Okay, some here girls, you stand here, you stand there"
"Excuse me, everyone. Could you stop just a moment for us? Chris just graduated from Grad school!!!" YAY!!!!!!!!
As he hugged me, he whispered that he knew it wouldn't replace having my husband there but that he hoped it would give us the push we need to get through to August.
Oh, Matthew!!! Thank you does not seem like a big enough word for how you touched our hearts. My family just loves what you did for us that day. I don't know if you realize how big of a gift you gave us. Even a week later, as I'm writing this, I'm tearing up thinking about it. Thank you for working that day! Thank you for recognizing we needed a little bit of extra magic! Thank you for putting your heart into making our trip one of the best ones to date!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
