Dear Taylor Swift

Dear Taylor Swift,

I have tickets to your show next week in Detroit and I need a favor: PLEASE MAKE THE DETROIT SHOW THE BEST EVER.  I'm not asking for me, but for your biggest fan: my 10 and a half year old daughter, Izzy.

This is Izzy.

Izzy loves music. LOVES IT. Music has been a part of her soul and who she is deep down since infancy. I tell people frequently that Izzy learned to dance before she could walk. She would dance trapped in a hospital bed, laying down.

And you, you are her favorite singer by far. Seeing you play in concert is on her bucket list. Singing on stage with you is part of her dreams at least once a week and has been for years now. Izzy loves New York. Not because she's been there, but because you sang about it. (Because of you, she now knows what New York has to offer and is determined to move there.) Izzy cries whenever she listens to the song "Never Grow Up" because she wishes she would never grow up.

The thing is, Izzy is not likely to ever grow up. Visiting New York City, let alone living there, is a pipe dream for her.

You see, Izzy is in heart failure. She was born with complex heart defects. She has undergone 3 open chest surgeries (2  of them open heart) and 7 heart catheterizations. Unfortunately, that is not enough to help this sweet girl. Almost six years ago, we learned that her heart (after a year of improvement) started to fail again, but there were no more surgeries, no more fixes. We looked into heart-double lung transplant--her only potential option--but declined for a myriad of reasons. Ultimately, Izzy was admitted to hospice around her 5th birthday. She was in preschool and we have lived every day since to its fullest for her, making memories and enjoying the smiles. During that time, we've watched heart disease slowly steal our girl.

Izzy earlier this year at the Sweet Hearts Ball, standing in front of the collage of her pictures.

But music has been a light in Izzy's life. Your music is the only medicine strong enough to help Izzy get through car rides. It is stronger than morphine, zofran, and valium, which we have to give her to if she is going to ride any distance. When she is feeling especially bad, my husband and I know that if we put on your albums and play them in order (they must be played in order), then we may be able to help Izzy power through. Gosh, we hope that will work next week when you are here.

I messed up the last time you were in Detroit and failed to get tickets (I didn't realize you came to Detroit until the day after the concert). I quickly rectified my mistake and started following you religiously. I got on the wait list for tickets early this time and even bought two copies of "Reputation"--one CD to move up on the wait list and a copy on Amazon since we don't even own CD players any longer. I didn't want to miss a chance to buy tickets for my girl. I even bought a sweatshirt to move up on the wait list even though the smallest size sold looks like an over-sized  dress on Izzy (failure to thrive, as they call it, leaves Izzy one of the tiniest 5th graders you'll ever see).

Thankfully, I logged in and was able to get Izzy tickets. They're decent, not quite what I was hoping for since we had to sit in the handicap area and those seats are far away from the stage. (Not to mention that I had to buy 4 tickets since taking my daughter in her wheelchair to events is not easy alone, but you can't buy 3 tickets together when one is a wheelchair space, so I had to buy 4--2 in the wheelchair space and 2 in the row ahead of that.) Regardless, I spent a small fortune to get 4 tickets to your show and boxed up a note letting Izzy know for a Christmas surprise. It was worth every penny to see the excitement on her face, even though I did not know if she'd make it to the concert.

Nine months ago, when I bought tickets to your Detroit show, I couldn't fathom that Izzy would be able to make it. Izzy has been living with increased pain, shortness of breath, swelling, lethargy. Yet, here we are, with one week to go, and Izzy is so excited. But Izzy is also very sick. She attended a community performance of "Beauty and the Beast" last weekend and the excitement of the music and the applauding wore her out so much, she needed a 2 hour nap afterward. While Izzy's pain is managed fairly well by her fantastic hospice team, she does still have pain frequently. The last time Izzy rode to Detroit to see mommy's work, she vomited because of the ride and was in misery. So, you see, getting Izzy to you will not be an easy feat.

But I digress.

Circling back to my request to you at the beginning: please make this the best show ever. This is Izzy's first real concert and is likely to be her last. For a child whose entire identity is wrapped up in music, we need this one concert to be enough to last for all time. I'm not asking too much, am I?

We will do everything in our power to get Izzy to the show. We're hoping she can tamp the excitement long enough for a long nap since bedtime is normally 7pm for Izzy who sleeps about 13-14 hours every night. (And who knew school was going to start the SAME day as your concert? I didn't!) We will give her meds for the drive and hope your music will keep the pain manageable in traffic. Then, we will navigate Ford Field with the throngs of people and wait through the opening numbers with all fingers crossed that Izzy's body can last until you come on stage. Then the magic needs to come, please.

We need you to rest as well as you can on the road the night before. We need you to eat properly during the day. Please makes sure to gargle or whatever is necessary to keep your voice in tune. And most importantly, keep kindness in your heart and let the haters' hate not affect you next Tuesday. Please make it positive. Please. PLEASE!!!

No matter what you do on stage next Tuesday night, Izzy will be in massive amounts of pain for at least the Wednesday and Thursday following and potentially the entire Labor Day weekend. So, please make the show worth the pain. Everyone I've talked to says that your shows are amazing, but I need more than that. This is a bucket list show. Please make the Detroit show spectacular and memorable and so much more for Izzy and her desperate mother.

PS
If you want to see what happened after this letter, check out the next post: OMG! It's Taylor Swift!!!!!