Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

    I have six children who have all taught me things which have made my life better and touched my heart. I watched Haley struggle through two very hard years with an eye disease, severe allergies, asthma, concussions and stalkers. I saw her hit rock bottom many times when it was all too overwhelming and she would fall apart and cry. All of what she went through at once would have made most people want to give up. It was hard for her to give up all of the sports she loved and have constant health problems. Haley refused to give up. It did not take her long before she was pouring herself into other passions.

   When Haley was a young girl she loved to act, sing and dance. She poured her time and effort into singing and acting to fill the void left from not being able to do sports and she found out she loved these things. I have always admired how much passion she has for life.

When she was young she wanted to act out Snow White. The wicked queen is giving her a poisoned apple

Snow White is dead and the dwarfs are sad, except maybe one of them

The prince has come to give Snow White a kiss

Haley and her friend Lucy stole a Christmas show as angels

She even did acting in the bathtub

She acted in some great family performances

Dissecting an alien

She can be very dramatic in her parts.

She always played a part in girl's camp skits

     She started taking voice lessons because although she sang all the time she wanted to be better at it. She tried out for a play at the high school as a sophomore and she got a very small part, as a towns-person in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". She had one line. She was just happy to get a part.

She had fun goofing around after the play

    Then she tried out for the one-acts and the musical. As a sophomore she got one of the leads, playing Chava in “Fiddler on the Roof”. Usually the leads went to juniors and seniors so she was very happy to get this part. She did a beautiful job.

She performed as a telephone operator in a one-act comedy

Haley playing Chava in "Fiddler on the Roof"

   Then the spring play came and she got the lead of Maid Mirian in “The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood”. It was a comedy version and she had a very big part in this play with some very funny lines. When she tried out she did such a good job of being fiery and mean and then turning syrupy sweet every time Robin Hood showed up the director said she just had to have Haley play that part. She did an amazing job and got a lot of laughs.

She got to have her picture on the poster advertizing the play

The whole cast was great

    That year she was still suffering the effects of her concussions. During some of the long brutal practices she would get such bad headaches she would have to lie down on the floor. She would get yelled at for goofing around and she would just get back to work, work through the pain and then come home and hold her head in agony and cry. She did not want special treatment and she never told anyone what her challenges were. She didn't want anyone to think she couldn't do it. I spent hours and hours helping her learn songs and lines and I saw how hard she worked. Some of the juniors and seniors were upset she got big parts as a sophomore but I saw how hard she worked and I knew she had earned it
    Next came her junior year and more plays. She performed in "The Night of January 16th", where she played an old Swedish woman. She stayed in the audience until it was time to testify in the trial and she kept in character as a shaky, old woman and she talked to people very sweetly until she got fired up on the witness stand. She was very funny.

She even beat one of the witnesses with her purse

     Then came time for her to try out for the musical. Her junior year they were going to perform “Beauty and the Beast”. They had an extra lot of girls try out that year. Every girl wanted badly to play the part of Belle. Some of the girls were desperate to get that part. Haley was only a junior and the leads usually went to the seniors so she didn't expect she had much of a chance to get the lead. She practiced and practiced her lines and song. She was so good it gave me chills. She worked very hard. She auditioned but when the call-back list was posted her name was not on it. She was very sad and disappointed. She said to me, “Mom, I at least want to be a spoon”. I knew she had a big part regardless of the list because her practice was so amazing. I kept telling her I thought she got Belle. I was so sure of it that I made a big congratulation sign before the list was even posted. When she went to school the day they posted the cast list she was too scared to look at the list. One of her friends tackled her screaming when Haley came out of the bathroom. Haley got the part of Belle. She was in shock but also very happy. Both the choir directors told Haley that her audition blew them away and they knew instantly they wanted her to play Belle, that there was no reason to have her come to callbacks. After she got the part some of the senior girls were very mad at her and told her it was not fair, that she had robbed the part from them on the last year they could be in the musical. This made Haley very sad. She understood why they wanted such a great part and that they wanted their senior year to be memorable. I knew what Haley had been through, all the rough times. I knew how hard she had worked for this. One of the biggest lessons I learned in this experience is not to judge another person if you have not walked in their shoes. I wished every one of these girls could have walked through the previous two years of Haley's life and all the practices. If they had been able to, I knew, like me, they would cry they would be so happy she had come through so much and fought her way back up to get this. I have thought many times about this and cheered people on in their victories. Haley did a beautiful job playing Belle. I had a lot of people tell me she played her part so well they cried. I cried too.

The sign I made for Haley and hid until her part was announced

    The final night of her performance a lot of little girls came dressed up in their princess dresses and lined up to get their pictures taken with the leads. All these little girls were so excited to meet Belle. I watched Haley hugging and talking to them and it touched me how sweet she was with these little girls. They loved her. It made me cry again. One of these little girls, who went to church with us, would look for Haley every Sunday and give her a big hug. This was one of the highlights of Haley's life and one where I was so happy she had made it to the top of this big hard mountain she had had to climb.

Signing someone's program

This is one of my favorites. I love it!

   Haley performed in more plays as a senior, in “The Miracle Worker” and she was the lead in “Guys and Dolls”.

Haley in "The Miracle Worker"

She also had a very small part in this play with no lines. She was happy for her friends who got the big parts

Haley performing in "Guys and Dolls"

     With Haley's passion for life she still wanted to do it all, she just had to find a different road to take. I traveled the very rough road with her so this victory was so sweet for her and me as her mother. It felt to me like she had worked hard to climb a mountain, where she was beaten by storms, knocked back down the mountain but she still kept climbing until she got to the top of that mountain. It was to me like her part as Belle, where everything went wrong in her life at once but she never gave up hope and always looked for what good there was in life. Thank you Haley for for being an example to me of how to make lemonade when life hands you lemons, how to climb mountains no matter how tall or how big the obstacles and that when you want do something to give it 100%. You have been a big inspiration to me. Thank you.