The Lion King

If you haven't been, make the effort to go, today!

Last weekend, mum, dad and I spent packing up Nan's house. It was another traumatic thing I've had to do. Putting posessions of someone you love in a box, is not my ideal way to spend a weekend. We have decided for now to just put everything in storage. It's too early to 'deal' with things long term. While packing, mum remembered that Nan had told her before she died that she had bought us tickets for christmas Lion King. Nan told mum so that if they were planning going anywhere not to plan anything for that night. Dad and I knew nothing about it until mum mentioned it.

We had no idea where the tickets might be. Nan's house is/was very organised, it always was. Everything had a place and there was a place for everything. It's clear where dad and then I got this structure from. Dad is a neat freak and so am I. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it drives others crazy. I think mum just learnt very early on to accept this was how her life was going to be. I know nothing else *shrug*. It seems mum was the only one who would have had to adapt. As usual, I've gone off track.

Nan has a way of dealing with bills. When the bill arrived, she would put it back in it's envelope and write the day it was due on the front of the envelope. She then had a vertical metal rack that she would place them in, in date order of when due. (I'm looking across at my own bill system right now. Heh, wonder who I learnt that from).

We checked where she keeps bills, nope not there. We checked the drawer where she kept writing paper and envelopes, nope not there. It became a little like a treasure hunt. We continued on packing the house up and we agreed that if we couldn't find them, so be it. In Nan's room there was a shoebox that had 'special things' written on the lid. I'd seen the box before, but never seen 'inside' it. Dad opened the box and on top there was an envelope from Ticketek with Nan's address typed on the front. In Nan's handwriting it just said 'For my family'. There were four tickets. Clearly Nan was coming with us. There was a whole lot of other things in the box too, but we'd found what we were looking for and still felt it a bit intrusive to search any further. Another day. The box now lives at mum and dads. It didn't go to storage.

We agreed that we would go to see the show. It was clearly what Nan had intended for us. None of us wanted to go. Anyone we told all agreed. 'If she bought them for you, she wanted you all to have a good time'. The only decision to make was, what to do with the other ticket. Again, the 3 of us spoke about it. We decided we wouldn't do anything with it. It felt wrong to give it to someone else to use and someone else may not have felt comfortable knowing the circumstances it was bought for.

We had a bowl of soup before we went and agreed we'd eat after.

The show was simply brillant. The colour, the sound, the atmosphere was amazing. We had fantastic seats. We had 4 seats from the aisle in row K. During the perfomance the characters just appear magically from the aisles, so you are extremely close to them while they run down the aisles to the stage. The first time it happened was breathtaking. The last time it happened was equally as breathtaking. It only took me about 30 seconds and I believed the characters were real. I didn't look at them and think yeah right it's just a person with a costume on, I believed they were Scar, Mufasa and Rafiki and I believed I was on the African plains. I was part of the adventure.

Who wouldn't believe that was Simba?

I found myself singing (I hope not loudly) along to Hakuna Matata and Circle of Life.

and yes I had tears, for more than one reason when, Can You Feel The Love Tonight? was sung.

Thank you Nan for such a beautiful gift. It was hard to sit through it without you there physically, but I had the feeling through the whole performance you were there somehow.