When ‘My’ Jesus Joined the Diabetes Battle……or Did I Join His?

Quite a few people reached out to me this week to ask me about my comment I posted about Victor Garber last week.  I posted a video of Mr. Garber and his public service announcement about the missed diagnosis of T1D, I will post it again at the end of this story so you can see it too.  Many wanted to know just how he influenced my life.

A long, long, time ago, I went to the movies and saw Godspell.  When it was over, I could not speak.  I fell in love with all of them, every single member of the cast.  I was so moved by the man with the HUGE hair who played the role of Jesus.  His name was Victor Garber.  Years later I would find out it was his real hair…..of course it was, there was nothing fake about him.  But I digress.

I played the Godspell album so many times when I was 16, I wore it down and had to buy another one.  I knew every word and every nuance of the movie.  I read everything I could about it.  My junior year in high school there was a post about auditions for a school production of the King and I; it never even occurred to me to audition for the ‘main musical’.  But right next to the notice was a smaller notice, Sister Patricia Crisci would be holding auditions for a production of Godspell.  My dream of one day singing “All for the Best” with Victor Garber would be one step closer, if I could only be cast in the show.  Victor Garber was my Jesus.  One day we would work together.  If that was TOO BIG a dream, perhaps I would just experience the magic I felt from the movie would have to do.

Really?  Godspell!

Just a bell did not go off in my head, an entire bell-ding-dong-orchestra went off…..THIS was for me.  In the school production the roles of Jesus, John the Baptist, and the ‘Turn Back O Man’ actress were cast already and the rest of the cast would be doubled up and one cast would perform on Friday, and one on Saturday.

I just wanted ‘in’.  I had to get to get in.  I worked for days on my audition.

I was cast as the silly one who does the imitations, cracks the great jokes and sings “We Beseech Thee”.  I was in.  I loved every single minute of it.  The cast was incredibly close and we were together almost every minute.  There was just no way that I could not fall for the girl who sang “Day by Day”, and Karen wore my high school ring all through Junior Year of High School.

If one could ever touch magic—–this was it.  The make-up crew, the costume crew, the musicians, and us as cast…..we worked on the show for months and gave the Broadway production a run for their money (not really——but we thought so).  We were just THAT close and the show was a huge hit with the school.   In my eyes this all began from a musical starring a tall skinny man with huge hair, who had the purest of hearts, the kindest of eyes, and the voice of an angel.

On the night of my performance I came off the stage and said to my mom, “I will do this for the rest of my life”. The magic of Godspell was in my heart and it would remain.

I had to stay at this thing called acting….and I did for many, many years.   My acting career would take me back again and again and again to the first show I was ever in, Godspell.  It would also be my first ‘professional’ show (first paying job) and my first Summer Stock show.  Yes, Godspell would come to mean more to me in my life than any other show from the time I first saw the movie and Victor Garber was singing in a Times Square Billboard, to the four more times it would touch my heart and soul in live productions over my career.

Yes, I stayed working as hard as I could as an actor and successes were coming in; until my heart would be touched again.  When I was leaning over the bed in an I.C.U. at Stony Brook Hospital and promised a two-year old little girl that we would do all we could to find a cure; and to change this world of diabetes, the acting career would eventually be put on a back burner and a new career became more important.   And in that new career I learned that Mr. Garber also had type one diabetes (since age 12).

I have walked this earth, of late, shouting from the mountain tops how vital the seriousness of the missed diagnosis of T1D is, and sharing with ANYONE who will listen.   When my friends at Beyond Type 1 sent over the new and recent video of Mr. Garber discussing the warning signs of T1D my heart leaped out of my chest (click the link to see the PSA).  I cried when I saw it.  A circle in my heart had come to completion.

I may never, ever, get the opportunity to sing with my childhood idle, but being in the same battle of diabetes with him….well…..it’s……...All for the Best. (Click this link to see Mr. Garber in Godspell singing All for the Best—-without me  🙂 …….SIGH—Some day!)
I am a diabetes dad.
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