A personal account sent from Michelle Harmon, Orrington, Maine

I get there, and the lines were incredible. I asked, “What about the VIP tickets, is there a shorter line?” Yep! Shorter, much shorter lines. I get in, and then start hearing from friends in the audience who saw me and wanted to know how I got so close. So I waited for the kids, and they called, they were at the end of a long line, and the VIP section was filling up, and closing down. I was very worried, standing by the gate waiting for them, when a lady spotted me, I was not really upset but was worried, and must have looked it. She said, “Can I help?” and I told her, “My kids are back there, and they are closing the gate.” She works for Sarah Palin! She immediately went and got them, then came back with them, and smiled at me and told me Ciarra was gorgeous. We went to our spot, which had now been pushed back further away when a lady tapped me on the shoulder and asked if the four of us wanted to go on stage. Of course! They needed filler people; we got the front left. Wow!

So we stand there; Ciarra now has a little American flag … dunno from where … and here we are. The huge plane pulls in … wow. I had goose bumps. And then, here comes this petite little woman in a red dress and butt kicking boots … Sarah Palin. Right up the stage, and who do you suppose she saw first? You guessed it. She not only noticed, she stopped cold, rushed towards Ciarra and enveloped her in a hug. She leaned in to say hi to the girls and me too, and told me Ciarra was so beautiful.

So, we have speeches, and Lee Greenwood sings some songs … he’s amazing … and Sarah Palin stands listening to him and catches my eye. She smiles the most friendly, kind smile, right at me. During her speech, she was talking about better funding for special needs, and she turned and looked directly at me and winked. I gave her a thumbs up and mouthed “Thank you.” It was an incredible moment. I felt like she got it—the sisterhood thing—she’s ours. So she does her speech, then she does the rounds after, then bounds back onstage and beelines it for Ciarra! She got down on a knee, hugged her, hugged me, introduced herself … so funny … and Ciarra starts handing her presents. We had made a tiny shirt that said T21, with “got 47?” and Palin on the back … just a onesie but cute. I had wanted to hand her the shirt and had other gifts in a bag. Ciarra had other plans. She was determined Sarah Palin was going to open them, and I told Sarah Palin it was fine, she could open it on the plane. She said no way; I want this time, and snuggled in to look. Ciarra handed her two copies of our book autographed to Trig; a matching set of Maine-made red fleece booties and a hat; a book (Uncommon Fathers) for Todd; some stickers for Piper (Ciarra loves Piper); and then an envelope I had included with pictures of Ciarra from infancy up … the fat little face, the cute toddler, the big girl, baseball catcher, best friends, just life. At this point, when she pulled out that envelope, her secret service guys were all but pushing her away. She turned and looked right at them, and said, “I am going to take this time, just a minute.” She opened the envelope. I kept telling her, “It’s okay, you can look at it on the plane.” But she wanted to see. And she looked at every picture, smiled, and you could see it touched her. She said, “So little Mr. Trig has to play baseball, doesn’t he?” and looked at me so … gratefully maybe? She was definitely touched by the pictures, then she said something I completely didn’t expect … she all but yelled “My kid has more chromosomes than yours!” It was awesome. In that huge crowd, with all those people tugging at her, she was completely in the moment with us. I told her to read the letter later, and she tucked it into the envelope, gave hugs all around, and then moved away, but did come back to tell Ciarra to look at the plane windows, Bristol and Trig would be waving, to watch for them. And then she was gone. And we did an interview for the Buddy Walk, and we drove home. And I have never felt such a connection to a politician; she is so real, vibrant; she is one of us.

– October 16, Air National Guard hanger, Bangor, Maine.