My Favorite Trip to Las Vegas

My name is Calene Johnson. This is a story about my best friend Louise and our last trip to Las Vegas together. Our two families would often vacation together in Las Vegas where Louise and I would play the nickel and penny slots till the sun would come up while the men would be off doing whatever it was they did.

Then a few years ago, Louise was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have one of her breasts removed. The chemo treatments did not work so well for her the first time around and as the year passed she did not show any signs of improvement. At the end of that year she had to get the other breast removed. At that point we all started to prepare ourselves for the worst.

As time went on and the days got better then worse, my husband and I decided to take her on one last trip to Las Vegas, we new in our hearts that she was not going to be with us for much longer. Her husband David said that with the addition of the medical bills they would not be able to go with us. At that point my husband Kent, who is a retired Fire Chief for the volunteer Fire Department in Edgewater, Colorado made a few phone calls to see what it was he could do to help us get them there. After hearing the story about Louise, the Fire Department came through with flying colors. They managed to give us money to help pay for concert tickets. The one thing in life that Louise had always wanted to do more than anything was to see Celine Dion in concert. So that is what I set out to do, I placed a call to Caesars Palace in Vegas. I spoke with a woman at the event center and I told her the story about Louise and asked her if there was any way to get two tickets down in the front for her and her husband. She told me that it was a very doable thing and I had asked for two more tickets in the upper section for myself and my husband.

October came and it was time for us to go on our trip. It was early October and the snow was flying at home and the sun was shinning for us in Vegas. We arrived in Vegas where we splurged a little and caught a limo to the place where we were going to stay. My sister has a time share in Vegas and she donated her week to us so we could save even more money on the trip. That night my husband and I suggested that we all go to Caesars and walk around and see what was going on there. When we got there Kent and I took David and Louise over to the ticket counter to get the tickets for the show. That's when the trip fell apart. The young lady at the counter said that Celine was not performing that night and not for the rest of the week. She was on vacation and I was devastated. I told her that I had gotten a confirmation number and gave her the name of the person that I had talked to. All she could do was tell me she was sorry for the mix up. The saddest part about the whole thing was it was a total surprise for Louise and David, they had no idea we had gotten the tickets for the show. The look on Louise's face was enough to make anyone cry when she found out what was going on. I asked not so nicely to talk to the person in charge in hopes to straighten this mess out. I was then told I would have to come back the next day. The next day we all went back to Caesars to talk to the manager. The entire staff was very nice to me and Louise and explained that it was their mistake and they would refund our money. At that point I started to tell them why we wanted to go to the show in the first place. The manager said that when we got home I would have to call and set the whole trip up again.

When we got home I called and talked to the person that the manager had told me to call. I had to go through the whole thing one more time with this manager, and by the time I was done she had given us the tickets we wanted, comp our rooms and scheduled a limo to pick us up from the airport. WOW, nothing at all what I was expecting.

Five weeks go by and it's now November and it is time for us to go back. By this time Louise is barely strong enough for the trip; she tried to tell us to go without her and thanked us for the effort. There was no way I was going to let that happen. We managed to get her to Vegas where she showed a little sign of life. It came time for the show and Caesars had put David and Louise in the second row. When it came time to take our seats David asked me if I would like to sit with my best friend and enjoy the show with her. I was so emotional and I held her hand the entire time. When the show stared I looked over at Louise and she had tears running down her cheek, she was so excited. I asked her if she was alright and she said yes and that this was her dream come true and she did not know what else to say. It made my heart happy to see her smile when I knew she was in so much pain.

Louise passed away in February of 2007 she held on and fought as hard as she could. I lost my best friend and am so glad that I could do this for such a wonderful person, and tell you my story about Louise.