Pam and Dianne finally arrived but were unable to actually get to Jane because of the crowd and the friends that surrounded them for almost an hour. Jane had been a guest on Martha Stewart and both Pam and Dianne had had tickets to the show that day so Jane immediately asked how they had enjoyed the show, commenting how she had pointed Pam out to Martha as “her biggest fan." Pam runs a Myspace for Martha Stewart (unofficial) but immediately informed Jane that she had come to see “her’ at the show not just to see Martha and had actually been rather disappointed that they had been seated so far from Jane herself. Jane commented how they couldn’t have seated them further away from her if they tried, to which Pam replied dryly, “And I think they DID try”. They both laughed at that and it was time for the required “photo with Jane”  Cameras immediately went up to catch the moment causing Jane to comment to Pam that it looked like they were about to start a riot. I wondered given the number of people in the booth if anyone would have even noticed at that point!

I did get to speak to Jane for a moment and informed her that we had found the perfect new role for her. Her eyebrows raised, she inquired curiously what that might be? I informed her, we had decided she should be the next “Desperate Housewife” as we had learned one of the show’s main stars was leaving. Jane’s rather self depreciating reaction “They would never want me” was met with denials by all around. “Well" I said, with a grin "we MIGHT be able to change that”. She looked at me, considered for a moment then smiled. She KNEW what her fans were capable of, she had seen it in the past both with Dr. Quinn, Dancing with the Stars and most recently “Dear Prudence”. Who was she to doubt what  might happen?

After the show on Saturday most of us met for dinner (Michelle and her mom had gotten last minute tickets to Mary Poppins) in a pizza restaurant called Lombardi’s famed for the best pizza in New York. Unfortunately with that many, we needed several tables so everyone broke into groups. The wait was quite long – the pizza very fresh, but my heart still belongs to Bertucci’s!

Then it was on to shopping on 5th Avenue (where we met up with Sofia and her mom by accident) and later -dessert at “Juniors” famous for their cheesecake. Now “that’ was more like it!  The cheesecake really was as amazing as we had heard making it more understandable that before ordering our waiter had assured us if we “didn’t like the cheesecake he personally would pay for it!"  After seeing a group at another table celebrating a birthday a few of us decided we needed to invent one of our own. Pam was our ‘honoree- or ‘victim” depending on how you view it and it was great fun to see the look of surprise on her face when the waiters approached our table to sing happy birthday to her as she knew we all knew full well her birthday was actually in July! She was very goodnatured about it  though and went along with the joke and we all referred to it from then on as the night of “Pam’s birthday”. 

Sunday, was bittersweet as it began with Pam and Dianne bidding us goodbye early in the morning as they had to catch their morning flight to California. The rest of us slept in and enjoyed some rare time together, talking and marveling over some photos that Marga had brought with her of herself in earlier years and her family. It’s times like these I enjoy the most- time to just ’be'’. All too soon though it was time to head back to the Javits. This time we opted for cabs, we had had enough of the subway and anyway we had lost our human GPS!

Again, Jane’s booth was a a frenzy but not quite as frantic as the day before. I was glad for that because today Marga had brought her scrapbook with her, a very special gift for Jane which she had worked on for weeks. She had shown it to me at the house and I had been incredibly impressed. I wanted there to be time for Jane to truly appreciate all the work that had gone into it. Finally the right moment approached and Marga offered Jane her “gift of the heart” Jane took the book exclaiming immediately in delight that it was ‘this sort of thing that meant so much to her” As she turned each page the look of amazement on her face grew as did Marga’s height which by then was approaching 8 feet tall I suspected. She had put so much work into the book and it was clear Jane truly appreciated it. Each page was an artistic masterpiece of computer designed wallpaper especially chosen to highlight one of Jane's dances along with a DVD of the specific dance. There were also pages on Dear Prudence and on Jane’s Open Heart Design, each in carefully chosen colors and backgrounds, It was truly a work of art and at the end Jane herself applauded Marga for her gift and gave her a spontaneous hug. It was a proverbial “Kodak moment” if ever there was one!

 

Though I was familiar with most of Jane's art, I had a better chance today to examine one her most incredible works to date (in my opinion) which I had noticed immediately yesterday but been unable to see close up. It was a sculpture of the Open Heart symbol completely done in bronze but with amazing detail and with a texture that more closely resembled marble. Everyone in the booth had at one point marveled at it and when I announced to Susan Luks (Jane's art director) that I thought it belonged in a museum, she assured me that one day it likely would be.

Another highlight of the day came when Susan Rizzo Vincent and her group arrived. I had met Susan the year before but had no idea if she would remember me. To my surprise she enveloped me in a warm hug as I went over to ‘reintroduce myself” Susan is one of the warmest most loving women I’ve ever met. She  is the founder of an amazing organization called The Andrea Rizzo Foundation; which she  created in  honor of her daughter Andrea, her only child,  a promising young dancer who was killed at the age of 24 by a drunk driver. It had been Andrea’s dream to one day be a dance therapist and work with children, specifically cancer patients and special needs children; as she herself had survived cancer as a child. Though Andrea’s life had been senselessly cut short, her mother Susan, had with the help of loving friends, found a way to make Andrea’s dream a reality

Susan's connection to Jane had come about during the time of Jane’s participation in Dancing with the Stars. The show’s  producers learning of Susan’s organization had offered a gift of 4 VIP passes to the show to use for a future fundraiser. Susan however had another use for the tickets- to make a young girl’s dream come true. 16 year old Julie Reed, a cancer patient at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center had been introduced to ‘Drea’s Dream, the pediatric dance/movement therapy program established by the foundation . Foundation members knew how the therapy had helped Julie and wanted to honor her amazing spirit by gifting her with a trip for her and her mother to the show. All that remained was to come up with funds for the trip itself. With the help of foundation supporters and The Farmer’s Daughter Hotel, the needed funding was obtained. Jane, who had been contacted by Susan in an effort to gain her support  for the program, (as an artist/dancer herself) was so moved by the story she generously donated one of her “Healing Heart” paintings for an auction to help raise the needed funds. The group met their goal and Julie was a guest of honor at the 2007 Dancing with the Stars finale.

Now Susan had returned with her sister and some friends to reunite with Jane Seymour who, had opened her own heart to the young cancer patients helped through the foundation. From a distance I could see the warmth in Jane’s eyes as Susan and her group approached and presented Jane with a small gift. It was clear that Jane had a great deal of respect and affection for this woman and talking to Susan herself later, it was equally clear the feeling was reciprocated. This I thought, was what Jane’s open heart jewelry symbolized- people opening to each other- in time of need, reaching out, connecting through a common love of humanity.
(Read an exclusive DQ Times interview with Susan Rizzo)

My favorite 'light' moment of the day showed the 'fun' side of Jane. As usual cameras were snapping away- TMZ has nothing on Jane Seymour fans- and Jane in her usual gracious way was smiling and posing when suddenly she abruptly left to go to the back room. Had she simply had enough of the amateur papparazzi? Certainly I couldn't blame her. To our delight it was something entirely different. Armed with her "own" video camera Jane had decided to turn the tables on us and was now videotaping US! She encouraged us to wave and walked proudly up and down the group showing us that 'two' could play at this game! It was all in good fun and later I even got her to pose again with her camcorder for another picture!

I had never actually witnessed Jane painting in person before nor I knew had many others, so especially having missed seeing her painting the day before with the children, I was overjoyed at an impromptu art demonstration a bit later. It was fascinating to see her ponder what she would do and then just start painting. Each design was done slightly different in the same black paint and the room suddenly hushed as Jane set to work. At one point she seemed to notice the silence and assured us "It's alright to talk" At that, everyone laughed and things returned to the normal 'din' as one after another new pieces joined others behind her.

The afternoon passed quickly after this as Jane would only be there 2 hours that day. I managed to get to Jane to give her the Open Heart letters from our forum members and she took them gratefully promising to read each of them on the plane. Then it was time to go. Final goodbyes were said to Jane and to some of those who would not be accompanying us on our final afternoon in NY and promises exchanged to stay in touch and find a way to get together again.

Although the expo this year had not yielded the usual time to just chat with Jane, as in previous years, it had been special in its own way and I truly enjoyed it. It had become a meeting place for friends all over the world united by their common appreciation of Jane and her art. I had reconnected with old friends and met new ones and somehow at the end, Jane’s “Open Heart’ concept had become even more meaningful to me within the context of it all. Want to read more personal accounts? Visit our forum