Don't Mind Me, I'm Just An Old Queen

Here we are, wildly at another Miss Minnesota week. Admittedly, as I get older (and fatter) and get to know fewer of the contestants, I get a little less excited about the whole thing. But by the time we reach this stage, and my pageant friends have started their tentative top 5 or top 10 lists, well... I do get a little sucked in. And a little run-in on Tuesday morning didn't hurt.

Right away on Tuesday, I headed to the hospital to see a parishioner. He was in a serious garage fire last week, and he was scheduled to have some significant skin grafts that morning, so I was going to stop in and see him before surgery. I scored an awesome parking spot right at the start of the ramp, which is impossible in this particular ramp, and popped out of my car. I was headed to the door, already thinking of the visit with this guy, when a minivan passed me. Something in my head said, "Was there, like, a little girl wearing a crown in that car?" I totally shook it off and turned to keep walking.

Just as that minivan slammed on the brakes and started honking its horn, a second minivan pulled up with a very familiar face in the front seat. There sat the current Miss MN, crown and all, ogling at me. As I heard my name screamed from the first van, our Miss MN rolled down her window and said, "Are you Miss Minnesota?" I winked back, "Are you Miss Minnesota?"

As it turns out, the Miss America organization has the national platform of the Children's Miracle Network, meaning contestants on the local, state, and national levels help raise money and awareness for the organization alongside their own personal platforms. Since there's a CMN hospital right here in town, many Miss MN contestants are able to come volunteer regularly. And it just so happens that all the contestants were making just such an appearance that very morning.

I went to visit my parishioner and then headed up to see the contestants. I got walked around by a board member, introduced to several contestants with, "This is is one of our formers!" To be totally honest, most of them could care less. I'm not being self-depreciating; I last competed six years ago, before most of these contestants were even eligible to run. Even a contestant who I judged didn't know who I was. And why should she? A few of the girls I know and got to hug and wish good luck to, but to most of them I merely said hello and congrats. Hey, I'm just an old queen running into some girls who are focused on competing in a few days. No big deal.

Afterwards I got back to work, only to learn that Juliana Gabor, Miss MN 1970 and my judge the year I won, had died just that morning. I knew her as a talented and classy lady who passed far too soon. She cared about this organization, and it's so unfortunate that it's this week that she left us. Suddenly, the whole tone changes. I'm not just some old queen - I'm part of an organization, a sisterhood, where women with almost nothing in common instantly become family. I'm not in it to be famous. I'm in it for the same reason I always have been: to get to know incredible women who live amazing lives.

This afternoon, I'll sing at Julie's memorial service. Tonight, I'll watch the teens compete for Miss Minnesota's Outstanding Teen. The next two nights, I'll watch 17 of Minnesota's finest be their best selves. It is a celebration of life, achievement, hard work, talent, service, and most of all, what we as women can be. That, I can do.