Long Island Woman Battling Cancer Sees Bucket List Dream Come True

SOUTHOLD, NY —If you knew all that was needed was $500 so your friend, battling cancer, could see her bucket list dream realized, would you donate funds to help?

That's the question one North Fork woman posed on Facebook recently, when she learned that country music sensation Darius Rucker was going to be performing in a landmark concert in New York City at the Apollo Theater — and knew the star was on the bucket list of her dear friend Danielle Harrison-Meraz, battling cancer.

The woman, who, like all the other anonymous angels who sprang into action and donated to purchase their friend a second row seat to the concert of her dreams, asked not to be named.

But they gave their friend a night she will cherish forever.

"It was amazing, awesome," Harrison-Meraz said. "It fulfilled a large piece of my bucket list dream. We were second row, center — amazing."

Since Harrison-Meraz, of Southold, was diagnosed in late 2015 with cancer of the brain, lungs, and spleen, the community has opened their hearts, organizing fundraisers and supporting her throughout her journey with messages of love and an unending outpouring of support.

A team of angels has organized a fundraiser in Greenport attended by hundreds, a Yogurt Bowl organized by Kait's Angels, and a "Play for the Cure" event organized by the Greenport/Southold varsity and junior varsity girls basketball team. Friends were there to share her joy at a concert when Harrison-Meraz even got to meet Donny Osmond.

Harrison-Meraz has faced her challenges, including arduous chemotherapy and radiation, with her trademark positivity and loving heart. “Be grateful, always,” she reminds friends daily, always thankful for her blessings, even in the face of trials.

Driving Harrison-Meraz to treatment, her friend said the talk turned to bucket lists.

"I'm not the person who's afraid to have a conversation about dying," Harrison-Meraz's friend said; she has had experience with hospice care.

"We're all born and we are all going to die. We're not going to get out of this world alive. So on the way to radiation, I asked, 'What's on your bucket list?' She said, 'Seeing Darius Rucker and Keith Urban,'" she said.

A week later as she was readying for a yard sale, Harrison-Meraz's friend looked up Darius Rucker's tour dates and saw he was playing Oct. 18 at the Apollo — the very next day. Harrison-Merez pointed out seats and was happy to pay herself for a more moderately priced ticket — but her friend wanted to take it a step beyond and seat her friend second row, center, making it an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime evening.

She texted Harrison-Meraz and then began surfing around, checking for available seats at the venue. She finally happened upon second row seats for a whopping $771 and bought them secretly, along with the silent army of angels, wanting to surprise Harrison-Meraz about the prime location.

When she turned to Facebook with the question about who might want to donate to help make Harrison-Meraz's bucket list dream a reality, donations came pouring in, some from those who'd never even met Danielle.

Others donated money for gas, tolls and dinner — another bucket list dream checked off, as her friend brought Harrison-Meraz to Sylvia's Restaurant of Harlem, a restaurant she'd always wanted to try.

Although Harrison-Meraz once again insisted she wanted to pay, her friend explained that so many wanted to help give her a night of dreams — it was all covered.

Walking into the theater, Harrison-Meraz had no idea where the seats where, and as her friend, in cowboy boots, wheeled her down to the second row, the moment, caught on video, is priceless, as Harrison-Meraz's beautiful reaction of shock and joy was captured.

Another friend, who knew Darius Rucker in college, had Tweeted him and told him that Harrison-Meraz would be in the second row.

"I had a sign made that said, 'Darius, you were on my bucket list,'" her friend said. "I hid it in my purse. When he came out to do the encore, he looked at it and said to Danielle, 'Don't go anywhere. After the show, this hat is yours."

Rucker then sent a member of the crew out with the autographed hat, signed on the brim, for Harrison-Meraz.

Reflecting on the night, her friend said, of Harrison-Meraz, "She was beyond happy. Euphoric, ecstatic," she said. "The whole outpouring of love by this community just shows who Danielle is, as a person. Even when she can't be positive, she's still positive. Even when cancer is kicking her butt, she'll post, 'Cancer sucks — but be grateful, always.'"

It's that positivity and inner strength that has inspired her scores of supporters over the past months.

After the concert, her friend reached out to thank the silent army of Secret Santas who made Christmas come early for the woman they all love so much.

"How do I even express what’s in my heart today? I’ll come up with words soon but in the end it’s about this, God chooses to work His love through the hands of other people. The last 48 hours had absolutely nothing to do with me but it was all about one beautiful lady that I am blessed to call 'friend,' and her bucket list. As I am . . . be grateful always," Harrison-Meraz's friend wrote.

In recent months, reflecting on the outpouring of love from near and far, Harrison-Meraz has said she’s rarely speechless.

“I have no words to ever say what’s in my heart. I love them all so much. I am so overwhelmed that I can’t even process it all. I can only pray that God blesses them as they are blessing me," she said. "I’m so grateful.”

Patch courtesy photo.