When Make-A-Wish America contacted me saying “We’ve had our first wish request for Miss Nina” I was astounded and humbled. The email read:
Mary, a wish child from Minnesota, has battled her entire life with severe epilepsy and tuberous sclerosis. Her greatest wish is to meet Miss Nina. Mary chose this wish because she watches you every day on YouTube and loves singing and dancing along to your songs. Mary waits in anticipation for weekly emails indicating there are new uploaded videos. The videos bring so much joy to Mary’s day. Ideally, Mary would love to be a part of Miss Nina’s live show. She’d like to be on stage or in a video that later airs on YouTube.
I did not hesitate. I wrote back immediately to say “yes!”. As we were looking at dates and I was trying to figure out when there might be a good live show Mary could join me at – I came up with an idea: a VIP Video Shoot experience at the actual YouTube Space in New York City. We all loved the idea and got to planning! I assembled a team and the big day finally arrived – April 15th, 2017!
I was really excited to meet Mary. And I can’t quite put into words how meaningful this experience was. To be honest, just a week or so before I received that email from Make-A-Wish back in November, I’d had a somewhat dark moment where I was feeling like what I did was silly and frivolous and that perhaps I should stop. Receiving the email and information about Mary gave me a renewed sense of purpose, focus and commitment. In a way, before we’d even met, she’d become my video show muse. 🙂
I know everyone thinks I’ve done something for Mary by helping to fulfill her wish, but I think this event may have done more for me! I’ve never experienced being a room with so much love and generosity as I did that day. Never. It came from everyone in the room. But Mary herself is joy personified!
Make-A-Wish had let me know that Mary is 14 years old, and has physical, cognitive and communication delays. She functions equivalent to 4-5 year old. Mary can express her needs/wants and can understand and follow receptive information and what others are saying to her, even follow along with a story. However, she is much more limited with her expressive communication. Any type of formal communication is very difficult for Mary. But she is very social and happy in the presence of her family and friends. So although a little shy at first, we bonded right away.
I brought her to the studio for a little rehearsal/ warm-up to get her comfortable and then we went to Hair & Make-up to give her Star Treatment by Jackie Menconi of Jaxx Make-Up.
We got back in the studio and did just two takes of the show. It was amazing to witness that although Mary did not have a lot of expressive communication, she loves to sing! As you’ll see in the video she slowly starts joining me in singing Down By The Bay (by Raffi), and then by the time we sing You Are My Sunshine she’s belting it out right along with me!
To say that the day was magical is an understatement! Everything and everyone exceeded my happiest expectations & it was such a privilege, honor and pleasure to meet Mary and fulfill her Make-A-Wish wish! And I have to thank David Mishner, Scott Richard & Kar Kay Ho from Spry & Mighty. I truly could not have made this video without them and am so grateful for their generosity in contributing their time, talent, sill and heart. These are three guys of the highest character.
And one last shout out to my husband, Tucker Stone, (aka Mister Nina) who was available to us all in every way to help make this day special for Mary and support us all in doing our various jobs, selflessly contributing his time, energy and heart.
So now, here it is, Mary’s Wish Video with Miss Nina, made at the YouTube Space in NYC on April 15th, 2017: Down By The Bay, by Raffi, and You Are My Sunshine
We certainly hope you enjoy this video! Feel free to share it – whether you share this blog post or the YouTube Video – all is good!
And if you’d like to leave a comment right here on this blog post, we’d love to hear from you!
Wishing you all a wonderful week!
xoxo
Miss Nina
That was beautiful Mary
I was brought to tears. Absolutely beautiful! I’m a speech/language pathologist in Minnesota. (I don’t know Mary, but now I do!) I receive Ms. Nina’s weekly videos/updates to use them with my students. Thank you, Ms. Nina, for your kindness and loving of children of all ages!
Mary is our beautiful granddaughter & we so appreciate Miss Nina making Mary’s wish come true! Mary brings joy wherever she goes & thank you Miss Nina for helping Mary share that joy! It brought tears to our eyes! God Bless! Tom & Kate Shelton
I love this!! I was Mary’s music therapist for several years. I miss her singing. ❤️ Just warmed my heart to see her joy as you both sang together. Thank you Ms Nina for doing this for Mary. She is a special special person.
Beth
What an awesome job Miss Nina and the entire crew making our dear Mary’s dream come true! It’s true Mary has touched and brought joy to my life and everyone she knows!
Miss Sue
Tears in my eyes right now. That was so beautiful. Great job, Mary and Miss Nina!!
Elizabeth
This was just AWESOME!!!
Great job!!!
Absolutely LOVE this! Made me do the Ugly Cry. We love Mary and her Amazing family! Our daughter Kierstin also has TSC. We’ve known the Hable family since Mary and Kierstin were babies. Thank you for helping make this sweet girls wish come true!
Thank you for taking the time to make Mary’s wish so special. Miss Nina you and your crew our my heroes. Thanks again
Way to go Mary- that was a wonderful performance! What a special day ! This warms my heart. ❤️❤️❤️
Gosh Mary…that was just super! You sure have grown up a lot since our fun times at school.
Sure enjoyed seeing you singing with Miss Nina. Thank you for sharing this beautiful video with all of us. Blessing Miss Mary and Miss Nina.
Miss Nina,
I am Mary’s aunt. You are a gift . Thank you for making this wish and sharing your experience. Mary is a special girl, like so many children similar to Mary. The joy on both of your faces is heart warming. Hopefully your video will be see by many and show the world what a gift Mary is. We are so grateful to you and the others who helped make this dream come true.
You’re the best!
Laurie
So moving and uplifting!
Absolutely wonderful. Nina, this just goes to show that we never know how much we impact other people – or how much our actions (and art) are valued. What a joy that you got to discover that, through Mary. And Mary, I am so glad you got your wish of meeting Miss Nina! You made a wish for her, as well.
So happy to see the joy in Mary’s face–thank you Miss Nina! Aunt Mary
What a beautiful experience listening and watching Mary and Miss Nina find pure joy. Lovely song choices! Brought tears of joy to me.
Gorgeous Mary, as we call her, is a favorite of ours in the middle school kitchen. She comes down for lunch every day and brightens our day with her enthusiastic smile and fist bumps for each one of us. Thank you for making good Gorgeous Mary’s wish come true!
I am a music therapist in Texas and I was soooo touched by this video; your best one yet Miss Nina! Miss Mary, you are a terrific singer! I loved it!!
That was excellent! Thank you Miss Nina for making this happen for Mary. It is so fun to see Mary smile and get so excited! I am fortunate to experience the joy and wonderment that Mary brings to all of us at CMS on a daily basis. Now thanks to this awesome sing along the rest of the world will be able to experience Mary’s Spirit.
Thank you!
Mary is a beautiful person inside and out, I am so thankful she had this experience so her beauty could be shared with everyone else. 🙂
Very happy to have watched you, Miss Nina and Mary! Great artists both of you! Music is amazing, isn’t it? Lots of love from Spain
Wow!! I was impressed! That was quite a duo! Great job, Mary and Miss Nina