May 23, 2009
http://www.journalpioneer.com/index....=253756&sc=118
Dreams are made of this
Pauline Doucette’s hard luck story is taking a turn for the better
LORI A. MAYNE
The Journal Pioneer, SUMMERSIDE
It was just her luck. Pauline Doucette flew all the way from Summerside to Edmonton to fulfill her lifelong dream of seeing Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac.
A band member got sick, the concert was postponed.
“If something’s going to happen, it’s going to happen to me,” Doucette says friends will tell you.
But something good came out of that heartbreaking trip.
Fleetwood Mac learned of her story and promised an “unforgettable concert experience” to make it up to her.
“I have my phone attached to me constantly,” says Doucette, now home on P.E.I. hoping for news.
Doucette, 44, is known as “Black Cloud Polly” for her notorious bad luck.
Twelve years ago, she went into a coma for a couple of weeks with inflammation of the brain. Doctors warned she might not survive, or would likely neither walk nor talk if she did. Doucette fought back, moving from wheelchair to walker to cane and ultimately, back to her feet. She started fighting her way back to work despite memory problems.
But that ended when she got into a car accident, hit her head and was set back again.
When something’s up – which is often – she turns to Fleetwood Mac.
“I listen to the music and it calms me. There’s just something about it that makes me feel better.”
She’s loved the band since she was a little girl but feels particularly drawn to Stevie Nicks.
The closest Doucette has gotten to Fleetwood Mac is a tribute band in Summerside. “I even waited out back after the concert was over to see if I could meet them,” Doucette confesses.
The single mom, living on disability pension, saved change in a tin for months to pay for her Edmonton trip. When she learned of the concert cancellation there, it was devastating. She curled up into a ball and bawled for hours.
“She was kind of crushed,” agreed friend Shannon Doyle, who got the tickets.
Doyle, a Summerside native now living in Alberta, alerted media to her story, hoping something positive could be done for her.
Doucette landed on the front page, on TV, and got calls from people she didn’t even know. A Fleetwood Mac representative assured an Edmonton paper the band would make it up to her and got Doucette’s contact information from Doyle.
“She really deserves it, she’s had quite a life,” said her boyfriend Dan Enman, who was on the Island as all the drama unfolded.
Still, Doucette feels thankful even for the brush of fame she received this month with her idol.
“I made the front page with Stevie Nicks, so what else can I ask for, right? If they mailed me one of her little lace gloves or a piece off her dress, I’d probably be – just excited. And then I’d sit home, put my CD on and pretend I’m at the concert.”
– With files from Canadian Press