Everybody has a “story” that they hold close to their heart.
This is Tina. And this is her story.
I first met Tina back when I was working at a shoe store. I was a teenager. It was a part time job. Tina worked with me. At the time she was dating the manager of the store.
Tina and I really got along well. We had the same sense of humor, we had the same work ethic, and just plain and simple …We really just liked each other. A friendship bond formed quickly.
Well, we found out why we hit it off so well. Turns out, we share the same birthday. NOVEMBER 30.
Tina is exactly 5 years older than I am.
Back in 1989, on her actual birthday, November 30th. Her boyfriend took her to New York City to see the singer, actor, superstar…that Tina has idolized, adored, and followed for many years. ……..STING….Sting is best known for being in the band “The Police”. The night she went to see him he was acting in a Broadway show.
I remember when it all happened. Tina told me all about it the next day.
Tina had stayed after the show and waited to meet Sting. He came out after the performance. She was so happy to report that she met him. She got his autograph. Tina was beside herself that she actually got to talk to the man she has just adored for many years…
This moment that she met Sting stuck with her. It was the day she would never forget. She saved the T-Shirt and his signature.
Tina spoke of and thought of this moment quite often.
There were 20 years after my days of working at that shoe store that I did not see Tina anymore. She had since married a different person than the boyfriend she had back then. She was/is raising 2 children. She was living her life like the rest of the world.
Then, along comes FACEBOOK. Tina and I found each other in 2010 …And, ba-da-bing…, friends again….. Keeping in touch. Being birthday buddies. Enjoying each others entertaining Facebook posts, etc.
This past December I recall reading that Tina was excited to go see a Broadway Show starring no other than …. STING !!
He was back on Broadway and starring in “The Last Ship” in the famous Neil Simon Theatre.
She bought the tickets. Turns out, the day that the tickets were for, Sting was NOT performing that day. Some other actor was.
You think that stopped Tina? No way.. She went to that showing of The Last Ship, which Sting did not perform in…….. But, she also bought tickets for the following week when she KNEW that Sting would be there for sure.
So, I am going to now share a portion of Tina’s Facebook post from December 14th, 2014. The day she went to NYC to see Sting on Broadway. The day Sting was actually planning on performing in the “The Last Ship”….She went to NYC with her son, Thomas, that day…
Here is Tina’s well written Facebook post about what happened on that day ..(Also, be sure to check out the pictures below capturing the images of Tina as she is going through this very surreal experience..)
“Thomas and I had a lot of time to kill. It was 12:45 and we had just finished lunch at the Brooklyn Diner near Carnegie Hall. We walked back down toward 52nd Street where the Neil Simon Theater is (the Theatre that the Last Ship was being performed). As we passed by the theater we saw the people waiting for their names to be drawn from the lottery for extra tickets and some random beggars hanging around the stage door.
We decided to turn around and we trekked down 6 more blocks to re-visit the spot I met Sting in 1989- outside the stage door of the Lunt Fontanne Theater on 46th Street.
We still had time to spare and decided to walk past the theater toward 8th Ave to get a coffee or something. Plus I needed a restroom. Thomas said- “Oh, there’s a Starbucks” and we crossed the intersection and went inside. He got on line for coffee and I went to the restroom. 5 minutes later, coffee and water in hand and with no seats to spare inside, I said, “Meh, we’re tough, we’ll walk around some more. “
It was about 1:40. I pushed open the door and we stood at the corner. This crosswalk had a bike lane and then a small median strip so we began walking toward the median. As I looked at the lone figure standing on the median, I noticed he was wearing scruffy pants, black sneakers, a down jacket and a knit cap. He had a beard. He turned his head ever so slightly and as I stepped over to the median, I saw his profile and I knew……….
It was Sting!!!!
I had a split second to decide what to do. Take a picture? Approach him? Don’t approach him? I took a leap of faith and I decided to be myself and I walked up next to him (but not too close) and I said, “Sting?…” very calmly and quietly. He looked at me sort of intrigued and I think I extended my hand and said, “Hi, I am a big fan of yours and I met you 25 years ago on my birthday. I sort of unzipped my jacket to show him the shirt with his broadway likeness from 25 years ago and he chuckled. A real chuckle. I said, “This is my son and we’re to see the show for the second time and I am so happy to meet you” (or something like that) He said “Well it’s nice to meet you again” as we crossed the street. He also shook Thomas’s hand. I’m not sure but I think he was very close to me crossing the street- and very gentlemanly he put his arm behind me to guide me across as we stepped off the curb. Or maybe I dreamed that part. It was definitely very out-of-body at that point. We had one more street to cross and he asked, “Was it really 25 years?” And I said, “Yes, it was,- he was just a baby then (Gesturing to Thomas)Then I said, “But neither of us has aged a bit at all!” (pointing to Sting and myself) He laughed. Audibly.
I then asked, “May I take a picture?” and he said, “uh…not here, let’s go and I’ll bring you backstage and we’ll take it there, otherwise it would be like a photo shoot on the street.” I said, “Oh, of course, thank you” He continued, “ I’m supposed to be incognito, I didn’t think anyone would recognize me” I nodded and said, “Well, I did” As we walked the half block to the theater, I said, “I just want you to know, I’m not a crazy stalker, I’m a normal person, we live upstate- I’m from Rhinebeck- you know- where your friend the bassist Ira Coleman lives? “ And he said “Oh, yeah” Then he asked “ So you’re seeing the show today?” I told him “ Yes, I saw it last week with Jimmy Nail and it was amazing but I had to get more tickets to come back for you” He said, “Yes, Jimmy has some big boots for me to fill” To which I said, “Well, I’ve heard very good things about your performance” He said, “So, you’re seeing it again- but it’s all the same jokes, you know?” I laughed…we approached the stage door and he signed some autographs on memorabilia that some very disheveled and/or homeless looking men were holding out for him. We then stepped inside the stage door. He said, “ok, do you need light?” I replied, “No, I have a flash on my camera, that should be fine” So I stood next to him and he put his arm around me as I handed the camera to Thomas. Then he asked, “would you like one with him?” So I said, Oh, sure, Thank you” and I snapped a (blurry) one of Thomas.
I thanked him and said I was a fan since I was 14….. and I have followed his work ever since…… and I think I said “break a leg” and “thank you, again”. And then the doorman guy shepherded us out back to reality.
So that was it. If any details that I forgot come back to me, I’ll add them in.
My guardian angels were working hard for me today. To choreograph the exact moment in time and space in all of Manhattan I really cannot explain it any other way.”
This second meeting with Sting was exactly 2 weeks to the day after her birthday. Almost exactly to the day 25 years to date after her first encounter with Sting ..
I truly do believe that her guardian angels choreographed those 2 meetings with Sting. I think it was all part of her life path.. planned out….. I really do….
This was so special to her, I don’t think Tina has slept for weeks, reliving this story in her head.
Tina got STUNG twice, and she liked it !!
I want to add that it’s pretty neat that I was in Tina’s life during both of those experiences and heard the story each time .. The next day after it happened … That amazes me ..
I sent Tina a message (inbox) on Facebook asking her to share her thoughts on her experience …
Here is what she wrote :
Here are some of my thoughts about the day: I was struck by how absolutely normal and genuine Sting has become- time and age seem to have tempered his celebrity and made him more approachable and more grounded. After 25 years, I met the same man, but a different version- one who had grown and changed just as we all have… I was also thinking about how life goes in cycles- 25 years after my brief meeting with “rockstar Sting”, here I was with my grown up son (who happened to be a baby in 1989 ) My son is about the same age I was when I met Sting the first time….and I am just about the age my own mother was in 1989 also…..I will be turning 50 this year. So the significance of this meeting was quite profound to me with regard to my own life cycles. One of the songs Sting wrote years ago that was in the show is called “All This Time” and it is about how the river that flows through their hometown has kept flowing “all this time” throughout the ages- from pre-history to the Roman occupation, to the industrial revolution, through his grandparents’ lives, his parents’, his own, and it will continue to flow, unencumbered by time. I think about that a lot, and how we have to make the best of our lives while we are here, because in the grand scheme of things, life is really just too short. Carpe Diem!