Meeting your hero: Montana woman recalls inspirational Make-A-Wish experience with Kobe Bryant

Since the news broke of Kobe Bryant’s death, millions have shared their heartfelt memories and stories of the global icon. Those stories extend to the Fort Belknap Reservation, where one girl and her family met Kobe 20 years ago. “He like walks into the room we’re just talking and I just freeze I couldn’t say anything” “It was a dream of a lifetime for her…” Meeting your idol, it’s something every kid dreams of. For me, I always wanted to meet Brett Favre and I would think all the time about what I would say to him, if we ended up in the same room together. Would I freeze? That feeling of awe, causing your mind to go blank, is what Lindsay Doney-Messerly experienced when she found herself in a room with basketball superstar Kobe Bryant. “I didn’t know what to say I was star struck. He’s like are you okay? I said no! I was so nervous… and to this day I can’t tell you what I was going to ask him because I don’t know,” said Lindsay Doney-Messerly. The Make-A-Wish Foundation believes a wish experiance can be a game changer for a child with a critical illness. In 20 years, Kobe granted more than 200 wishes with the charity. One of those was Lindsay, a 13-year-old from Hays, Montana. “I didn’t know it was severe as it was because I was so young I didn’t understand all of it,” said Doney-Messerly. In 1999, Lindsay was the youngest, and one of just four in the state of Montana to be diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis. MG is an auto-immune, muscular disease, causing severe weakness in skeletal muscles which allow the body to breathe and move parts of the body. “I was worried about my daughter because this disease here that she has would make her crippled and wheel chair ridden.. I mean it could still happen too,” said Lindsay’s father, Dale Doney. Lindsay explained, “Like I wasn’t even able to hold a smile, I had like no muscles or I did but it didn’t work.” Lindsay’s parents and her doctors connected her with Make-A-Wish, and when asked which celebrity she’d want to meet, there was only one real choice. Kobe. “No matter what, he always persevered, no matter what the situation is he overcame it and that’s how I wanted or that’s kind of how I needed to be with my muscle disease and everything, almost like inspiration,” Lindsay explained. In 2001, the letter came, telling Lindsay she and her family would be flown to Los Angeles. On April 12th, they went to a game at Staples Center against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Kobe would dazzle on the court. 30 points, 9 assists, powering the Lakers to a 119-102 win. Then, it was the moment she had been waiting for. Lindsay recalled, “A little after 8 he came in to the green room, small room he came in a we visited for four hours. It was after midnight when we all left the Staples Center. It was really late, yeah it was something.” “It made me happy to see my daughter meet her hero you know,” Dale Doney added. Four hours with one of the most famous athletes in the world… a gift to the Doneys that would never be forgotten. And in return, they gifted him with something from their culture. The family brought Kobe a star quilt made by Lindsay’s Aunt, Melissa Henry. It was draped around Kobe’s shoulders, and as the story of the quilt was explained to him, Lindsay says Kobe was moved to tears. She said, “That’s the thing I remember, I remembered the most is him, how emotional he got to receive such a gift. And he really thought it was cool we have the same colors as the Lakers here in Hays/Lodge Pole.” There’s a picture of Kobe of him with the quilt draped around his shoulders, talking on the phone. Turns out, he was spending five minutes to talk with her brother who couldn’t make the trip down to LA. “And we told him the reasons he couldn’t come because he had finals he told me he respected him so much because he himself couldn’t go to college. So he called him and my older brother answered the phone and he was so excited doing cart wheels,” said Lindsay. Lindsay’s father Dale, was another person who was touched by the interaction, as he was given a new nickname by the star. “Well you know I guess he called me Pops, and I was really good with that you know I mean it was just like what a son calls his father and Kobe was really young at the time so Pops was good,” said Dale with a big smile on his face. Kobe died in a helicopter crash along with his daughter, Gianna, and seven others on January 26th. Since that somber day, stories have come out about Kobe’s work with young people. According to Lindsay, her moment with Kobe was the first time he granted a Make-A-Wish, and she’s not surprised to see his commitment to community, spanning two decades. “Just an honor in general just because who he was and how he was. He obviously did so much for youth and cared about the youth and it’s just hard,” said Lindsay, crying. Lindsay’s condition is now under control, she’s married with three children with another one on the way. When she met Bryant in 2001, it was as a passionate fan. As an adult, she could relate to him as someone who cares more than anything about their family. “That’s what I feel the worse over is his daughter and wife over everything,” said Lindsay. Make a wish is there to give these kids who may not push through a chance to meet their heroes before they go. Now Lindsay, along with many across the world have outlived their hero. “I don’t know I just never thought we’d lose him this soon or you know I thought he’d be old or we’d all be old and it would happen then I just never thought anything this tragic would happen ever,” said Lindsay. Dale added, “I really felt bad for my daughter because that was her hero you know and the children that lost their lives.. but yeah I really felt bad because of what Kobe did for us.” In 2001, Kobe was just a kid breaking on to the global scene, famous for that mamba mentality. Off the court nearly two decades later, he was a man who loved his family and loved being a mentor to the next generation. That compassion and kindness is something Lindsay saw in him all those years ago in that small room at Staples Center. “He was kind very kind, he was so good to us and he was in every which way he was kind and that’s how I would remember him,” said Lindsay.