By Daena Smoller
Thanksgiving is my absolutely favorite holiday of the year and no matter what else is going on in my life, I always take time to think about how fortunate I am to have a handful of very close friends. One of those most cherished friends is Linda Mackenzie, the founder, President and General Manager of HealthyLife.net.
HealthyLife.net is an all positive talk radio network on the Internet; Linda’s brainchild. For those who know her, this fact would come as no surprise since Linda strives everyday to be as positive as she can and spread that positive thought and good energy as well as positive information to as many people as possible. The following is a personal story which will highlight one of the many reasons why I’m thankful that Linda is a good friend of mine.
When I met Linda in 1998, we hit it off famously. The following Spring, Linda joined us (veteran field parapsychologist Dr. Larry Montz and ISPR investigative team) in England for nine days to participate in the paranormal field investigations which were filmed to created the two award-winning 1999 documentaries, ISPR INVESTIGATES GHOSTS OF ENGLAND and ISPR INVESTIGATES GHOSTS OF BELGRAVE HALL. When we returned back to the states, it was becoming increasingly apparent that Larry’s health was failing and doing so quickly.
During this time, Larry was approached by a television production company to have the ISPR investigative team conduct an investigation of the Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego near the end of June 1999. This would be a repeat investigation for the parapsychologist but a new one for most of the team. The date was set for a Monday. Linda was scheduled to be out of town at a convention so she wouldn’t be accompanying us.
The week before the investigation, Larry was feeling rather poorly. That Thursday, I insisted on taking him to the hospital and upon the initial examination in ER, he was admitted immediately. After tests and an attempted procedure that couldn’t be carried out, Larry was scheduled for a quadruple by-pass first thing that coming Monday morning.
I called the production company, apologized for the short notice and informed the executive producer that there was no way we could conduct the paranormal field investigation as Larry would be undergoing a quadruple by-pass surgery.
On Sunday night, the night before the surgery, it dawned on me to call Linda and leave a message just to let her know what was going on. And I did.
Some of Larry’s relatives flew to L.A. on Sunday and we were all at the hospital before 5 am Monday for the surgery that was scheduled for 6:30 am. Every fiber of my being was rattled, not only because of the horrendous event we were going through, but because of the negative actions of others. The first being the owner of a company of which Larry was the General Manager.
Two months earlier while filming long days in England, Larry stayed up all night on the phone, overseeing the buyout of this company (very, very long-distance) which in turn made the company owner over 40 MILLION DOLLARS. But this now-rich man was vastly cruel while speaking to me by phone when I called to give him an update prior to the surgery – actually accusing me of knowing that Larry had a serious and massive heart issue and that I did nothing about it. I couldn’t have been more shocked since I discovered Larry’s problem at the same time he did, the previous Thursday. So even today, I’d like to take that man and shove his 40 MILLION DOLLARS where the sun doesn’t shine, but Linda, being all ‘love and light’, just says, “too bad, too sad”…which for some reason, always makes me smile.
The second person to blow my mind in a most negative fashion was the executive producer of the show we had to cancel. During hour two of Larry’s surgery, this man had the audacity to call the hospital and have me paged. I was silently freaking out in a waiting room when I heard my name announced over the hospital paging system. That sent me over the top…what other terrible emergency was taking place that anyone would page me during such a time, while at the hospital? At the nurses’ station, I was handed the phone to discover the executive producer on the line. He never even inquired about Larry’s status (and at this point, I didn’t know anything except that Larry’s chest was wide open and his heart was hooked up to machines outside of his body). Instead, he asked if I could still come to San Diego and do the investigation because if Larry was in surgery, he wouldn’t know I was gone! After a moment of dumbfounded silence on my end, I found my voice...a rather angry voice if I remember correctly. I certainly cannot share with you in this forum what I told this EP over the phone, but I can assure you, it was not a chapter from Linda’s book…all ‘love and light’!
But here’s where the story gets vastly better. After the phone call, I walked like a zombie to the massive windows and front doors of the hospital’s main lobby. I was just staring outside, straight ahead, without focusing on anything in particular. But then a yellow cab caught my eye for some unknown reason. The back door opened and out emerged the beautiful Linda Mackenzie. As I was processing this scene, I watched her quickly pay the cab driver while flashing that amazing “Linda Mackenzie smile”, grabbed her suitcase from the trunk and sprinted up to the front doors of the hospital where I stood just inside with my jaw hanging.
I couldn’t believe Linda cut her convention short, grabbed a plane and came directly to the hospital. But that’s what good friends do; they make sure they’re there for you when you need them, even without asking.
During Larry’s open heart surgery, Linda never physically left my side once she arrived at the hospital, but psychically, she kept an eye on Larry the entire time and provided me with constant updates (how freaky and awesome is that?!), and over four hours later when the surgery was completed and the lead surgeon came out to explain what transpired in OR, Linda was proven correct regarding her clairvoyant updates. And although extremely tired too, Linda remained with us at the hospital until it was time for me to go home.
So that’s just one sample story of why I cherish my good friend Linda Mackenzie but rest assured, I have countless others. And here’s the cool news for you, you too have the opportunity to get to benefit from Linda’s spirit and positive energy. Just tune into the
Linda Mackenzie Show on HealthyLife.net and make sure to take advantage of the opportunities to call into the show and speak with her live on-air. And in true Linda Mackenzie form, if she knew what I was writing about, she’d ask that I mention all the other wonderful shows hosts on the HealthyLife.net network. Well, guess I just did.
Thanks for reading and here wishing a fabulous holiday to you and all the very special people in your life during Thanksgiving 2009!
(Photo - L - R Back Row: Shawn Roop, Ron Kilgore, L - R Front Row: Daena Smoller, Linda Mackenzie, Dr. Larry Montz)
