Hank Aaron passed away yesterday. For those of you who do not know who he is, maybe you will want to stop reading right now. For baseball fans, however, the news was devastating. For me personally? My heart is broken.
About 5 years ago I met Aaron. If you had told me I would ever get this opportunity, I would have laughed at you. It wasn't even on my radar. By "chance" I was working at a hotel in Milwaukee where he was staying. I was behind the Front Desk on an ordinary evening, supporting the employees as they learned how to use my company's just implemented software. All of a sudden one of the female front desk agents pointed out that Aaron was walking through the lobby and said to me, "Now's your chance. Go talk to him!"
She knew I loved baseball; we had had many conversations about it. Why? Because this particular hotel was where all MLB teams stayed when in town to play the Milwaukee Brewers. During my week-long stay, both the San Francisco Giants and the Arizona Diamondbacks were at the hotel. I was in baseball heaven!
I straddled the fine line between my responsibility to be professional and my strong desire to meet one of baseball's biggest legends. Anyone that loves baseball admires Aaron. He was an amazing player and an ever better man.
I hesitated briefly, then threw caution to the wind, running out to the lobby like my life depended on it. There I found Mr. Aaron, along with his wife, making his way to the elevator. I called out, "Mr. Aaron" and he stopped in his tracks. His wife stood there, looking at me like she wasn't quite sure of my motives.
Being relieved that the first two words I uttered got his attention, I then succumbed to the influence of a star-struck mind. I had met a lot of famous people, mostly athletes, but this would go down in history as the best thing yet. Hank Aaron is baseball royalty and I would be hard-pressed to come up with a baseball player I'd be more excited to meet. I was absolutely, beyond a doubt, the luckiest girl in the World at that moment. Thankfully I realized it.
As I write this, I have tears in my eyes. Not just because he is gone, but because I am so grateful that I got to meet him. I know that God put me there in that moment because He knew how much it would mean to me. And Mr. Aaron was just so humble and gracious to put up with the likes of this bumbling fool.
I remember calling my husband right after Aaron and I parted. I can't recall what I said to him, but it was basically "You won't believe what just happened." As I talked to him, he was both happy for me and a bit envious, all at the same time. Just as I have tears in my eyes now, I also did as I shared the intimate details with my husband that night. We both realized just how amazing it all was.
One of the bellman approached me a little while later, as I still floated on the ninth cloud. He said he was delivering a room service order to Aaron and invited me to come along. Even in that moment of elation I knew I had to draw the line. As much as I wanted to cross it, I knew it would become plain old stalking if I ended up in Aaron's hotel room moments after being a blubbering idiot in the lobby. I graciously declined. It was one of the biggest temptations I ever had to resist.
Moments later said bellman came back from delivering the food and presented me with a personalized autograph from Aaron. I'm not much for such things, I'd much rather document such occasions with a photo. But this meant everything in the World to me. It had been an incredible, surreal evening and I was so very grateful.
As my husband and I watched MLB TV yesterday, it seemed the entire World had its memories of Hammerin' Hank. Fellow players and sports commentators shared countless stories of how be broke the homerun record and color barriers in one fell swoop; many more shared personal stories of him.
A knowing smiled came across my lips, tears welling up in my eyes, remembering my own story of Hank and me. This story would never be broadcast on national TV or on the radio. Thousands of people would never hear me speak about how meaningful it was or be in awe of my story. And that's okay.
For me it's enough that I have the memory, forever tucked away inside my heart, of that night years ago in the lobby of a hotel in Milwaukee when it was, quite simply, just Hank and me.