Beyond Awesome!

Eler Beth has a friend, Joe, who has been fighting an aggressive brain tumor. He had surgery a couple months ago and will be taking chemo treatments for a year. He found out not long after his surgery that he was getting his wish from the Make A Wish Foundation: to meet the cast of NCIS.

Monday he, his parents, and at least two of his siblings, flew out to LA. He'd never flown before and was very nervous about it. A limo met them at the airport to take them to his hotel. He texted Eler Beth when he got settled into the hotel and described the flight, the limo ride, and what he'd seen so far of LA.

Yesterday, the limo picked them up and took them to the studio where he not only got to meet the NCIS cast, but attended the taping of the season finale, got to actually help shoot a scene, operated the clapperboard (!! How cool is that !!), and got to sit with the cast while they watched the episode that was on TV Tuesday night. At one point while they were watching the show Michael Weatherly, who plays Anthony DiNozzo, said, "Hey I remember that scene!" Joe said Weatherly seemed very much like the character he plays. He also told Eler Beth that Pauley Parette, who plays Abby, told him something about an outfit that she wears in the season finale that she didn't like or had a problem with or something. (I'll have to ask Eler Beth exactly what that was all about.) Guess I'll have to pay close attention when that episode airs.

I think Joe's favorites on the show are Abby and Ducky, but I'm not sure. He got autographs from all of them and Weatherly even signed his Make a Wish t-shirt.

You know, I love NCIS and think it's one of the best, if not THE best, shows on television right now, and if there was the cast of one show currently airing that I'd put at the top of my own wish-list to see, they would be it. I am certain that the cast and crew treated Joe very well when he visited. This isn't the first time NCIS has granted a wish because there is at least one story on Make A Wish's web site of a fourteen-year-old visiting their set. Maybe Joe's story will be on their web site someday!

Today Joe and his family spent the day at Universal Studios Hollywood. I'm sure Eler Beth will get the lowdown on that tomorrow. He'll be in LA all week, and for a kid who has had more than one brain surgery in his 17 years, who is home bound for school, and who can't get out to do too much of anything, this has truly been an experience of a lifetime. Or, as he texted Eler Beth on Tuesday night, "This day has been beyond awesome!"