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Life turns on a dime. Your life can change overnight.
There seems to be a wind of change blowing through my life at the moment. A change of mood and spirit.
Yesterday was the 13th - apparently unlucky for some. I had a pretty good day. A good day at work for one reason and another. I arrived home to find that a friend from the US had sent me two volumes of his poetry - which I love. And I switched on the TV to a local news programme. The presenter mentioned “Patch Adams” so I listened carefully. Patch (the real Patch) had been in Manchester that day attending a Health, Art and Culture conference at the University. They showed a press conference with Patch sitting there at the front, cross legged, long hair in a pony tail down his back. I couldn’t believe he was actually in town.
My philosophy with things (sometimes, I confess) is “seize the day”. Ever since I saw the Robin Williams’ film “Patch Adams” I wanted to meet the real Patch. Only I never dreamed in a million years that it might happen. I made about four calls before locating the conference and talking to a guy called Eddie who said it would be OK for me to go down there. I grabbed Patch’s book “Gesundheit” and my camera and jumped in the car. And drove like a silly thing over to the other side of Manchester.
I arrived, no problem, managed not to go down the wrong one way streets and even found a parking space. I found Eddie too and he took me by the arm and led me to a spot a few feet away from Patch. He pointed him out as the guy with the blue hair. I would have recognised him instantly by his trademark dress sense. He was wearing a rainbow coloured jacket (made of very soft fabric, I was to discover later). It was like a portable book, inspiring words were written in the stripes. He wore maroon trousers and a white shirt, liberally patterned with animals and bright colours. I stood there for a while, watching. It seemed rude to interrupt as there was a dance troupe performing on the stage.
After a while though I went over to him, tugged on his sleeve (yes, really) and said “Hi”. I introduced myself and asked if he might sign my copy of his book. He did. Whilst he was taking a pen out of his jacket pocket I mentioned that I had seen the film, written to him and sent him a copy of “LLL”. He’d received it. “I’ve written you back”, he said. (Oh my). We chatted for a few minutes.
I asked how long he was in the UK. ONE day. (One day !!). I clearly had only a small window of opportunity. If I hadn’t switched on the TV …
I have to say it must have been fate. So many instances of synchronicity to make this, for me, incredible meeting. When I saw the film and read the book I thought over and over how I badly wanted to meet this man. And to have had that dream come true is awesome. I am still stunned.
I was gatecrashing and decided I’d better go back home. I said “Goodbye” to Patch and on the spur of the moment asked if I might take a photo. He has such an amazing aura and face - I didn’t want to forget. He suggested that someone took a photo of the two of us. He put his arm around me and rested his head on my head (he’s that tall).
It was an amazing meeting. And he wrote in my book “chase your wildest dreams”. So appropriate.