Grief, Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen, Brian Bodine & Hayley Vaughan, Kelly Ripa & Matt Borlenghi

www.SaintsforSinners.com

www.SaintsforHOPE.com

The Day I Met

Andy Cohen & Anderson Cooper

Hi Everyone!

This will be a fairly embarrassing story but I don't care. You've been asking me to use more photographs and as the saying goes, "Your Wish Is My Command."

Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper came to New Orleans and a friend had an extra ticket so I invited myself to tag along. They were doing this "A Squared Show" and a lot of it was about Anderson's relationship with his Mom, Gloria Vanderbilt. He wrote a book called "The Rainbow Comes and Goes, A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss." I lost my Mom when I was 13 and am always interested in hearing about mother/son relationships, their dynamics and histories, so I was glad I could see their show.

The show did not disappoint. It was a bit of a roller coaster, heartbreaking, funny, and sometimes both, simultaneously. I'm so happy I went because those two guys seem to bounce off of each other and you can feel their good friendship in the air. Plus, Anderson Cooper has the cutest, giggling laugh I've ever heard. It's impossible to feel anything even remotely sad when Anderson starts laughing uncontrollably.

OK, here is the goofy, dumb, pretty embarrassing part of the story. Another reason I wanted to go to the show was because I knew Andy Cohen was a big fan of "All My Children," a soap opera that aired on ABC. So, when I had the chance to meet Andy Cohen, the only thing I wanted to talk about was "All My Kids," which is a nickname a lot of us gave the show.

Andy Cohen has a talk show and obviously loves to talk, so when I mentioned All My Kids, his eyes lit up. In no time, we were chatting about "Hayley Vaughan" and "Brian Bodine," two characters on the show, played by actors Matt Borlenghi and Kelly Ripa. Except we never mentioned the actors, the only thing that mattered to us was the story of Hayley and Brian and their relationship. We acted like two schoolchildren who think characters on TV shows are actual people and it was all fairly hilarious. And fun, it was really fun!

Anderson Cooper was talking to my friend, Rick Duplantier, and we actually interrupted them. They were confused and wanted to know how two complete strangers could be excited about something so quickly. It was one of those "You had to be there" moments that are practically impossible to explain.

If you look closely you can see Andy is holding a felt pouch in his hand. I had given him one of my hand-painted saint medals. Andy is Jewish, and his family is from Poland and Russia. We talked about that later, and he agreed with me that the stories of the saints are not categorically Catholic or even religious. The stories of the saints are stories, some are complete fiction and others accurate. The stories can help anyone and everyone. You just need to understand they are stories!

Andy and Anderson both left the Saenger Auditorium wearing my hand-painted saint medals. My friend Rick could not believe I was able to get them to happily wear my designs.

Never underestimate the powers of Soap Opera romances or chatting with someone who has lost their Mom. Oh, the places you'll go!