Annalise

I can only remember her first name, Annalise. She was tall and buxom with long blonde hair, and just the hint of a Dutch accent. It was July 2000 the first and only time I met her at an Air Supply concert at the California Mid-state Fair in Paso Robles.

I could not beleive our luck when Todd and I got front row seats for the concerts (the band preformed twice that day.) We ended up seated next to a woman named Jennifer who I had met twelve years or more earlier at some other Air Supply concerts, on a completely different coast. She was at this concert with her kids; a son who had just graduated from UCLA, and a 5year old who did not seem as excited to be there as we were.

There was a couple behind us who had been following the band for 25 years. I felt strangely jealous of these Air Heads because they could afford to follow the band around from concert to concert, and yet I also felt a sense of camaraderie with these people who loved my band as much as I did (although none of them had named their children after the band members like I had).

Annalise was at the concert alone, although she knew all the hard core Air Heads. She sat next to Jennifer and they started talking. It wasn't until intermission that she introduced herself to me.

At first I almost saw her as a rival- I can't explain why. But as we talked I realized that she was just the sweetest person in the world. She gave me an orange guitar pick that Graham had given to her. She told me about how she had seen Air Supply on television and fallen in love with Graham. She and her mother used to travel to the concerts together, but her mother had recently passed away. She said that the band had sent her flowers when her mother died. I could see how desperately lonely she was, and how much the small gesture of flowers had meant to her.

After the concert she took me by the hand and lead me to the side of the stage where we waited for the band to come out. It always seems like it takes forever when you are waiting to meet the band. Annalise and I talked and talked while we waited, and then they finally came out.

Who can remember the silly things they babble when they meet their favorite band? It wasn't the first time I had met them. Russell seemed to vaguely remember me, and he actually shook Todd's hand and thanked him for bringing me to the concert. When I told them that we had named our youngest son after them, Russell gave me a kiss on the cheek.

After the band left Annalise and I talked a while longer. We did not exchange numbers or addresses. We knew we would see each other again, at another concert. I looked forward to it, although I had no idea when it might be.

It was nearly two years later after I got my first computer, I joined some Air Supply fan groups, and someone posted that Annalise had been found dead in a hotel room in Las Vegas where she had checked in for a weekend of Air Supply concerts. She slipped into a diabetic coma and passed away.

I felt a strange sense of loss for this woman that I had only met once. She made a deep impression on me, and I will never forget her.

If anybody who reads this knew Annalise, please let me know. Thank you.