The best thing about doing radio is you never know who is listening.
In this case it was a guy by the name of Monroe, with the CanWest Fall Launch.

Being from the states I was unfamiliar with Canwest. Turns out they are affiliated with 22 networks in Canada; National Geographic, BBC Canada, Global, food network, to name a few.

Due to Monroe’s recommendation, I received an email from Lynn Harvey who found me through my website. Lynn was the producer from Enter the Picture Productions (the creative team behind the launch). The email read, “Fran would you be willing to do your fast talking skills for a presentation reading a long list of the shows of network. It’s a glitzy event… you’d fly into Toronto the night before, do a rehearsal, wake up early for hair and makeup the next morning and do the 9 am presentation? The event is taking place at the beautifully refurbished, Elgin Theater in downtown Toronto, and many TV stars would be on hand to kick off the fall launch.” It sounded wonderful so of course I accepted. Her colleagues, Chris and Mark, arranged everything and a week later I was on a plane to Canada.

>> Continue reading "Canwest – Being an imposter at a glitzy network launch"

Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

A few months ago my good friend, author, speaker, tea expert and consultant Ellen Easton tried to teach me some etiquette with an afternoon tea on my online TV show, Fran’s World. (You can see the episode at www.rockmetv.com).

Apparently, she felt I hadn’t gotten it right, and she graciously invited me to the newly renovated, Plaza Hotel located on Fifth Avenue and 59th street in New York City.

The Plaza, which has been around for over 101 years…got a nice billion dollar facelift in 2005, which included new ownership and a lobby to roof renovation bringing the epitome of luxury to those who visit…and speaking of those who have graced the premises, the sex goddess herself, Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, Jacqueline Onassis and Truman Capote plus a slew of royalty from all over the world have made it their destination at one time or another.

>> Continue reading "Eloise, Ellen and Fran at the Plaza"

Permalink | Comments (42) | TrackBack (0)

A few weeks ago I got an interesting phone call. “Fran how would you like to be our emcee and media spokesperson for our fast, faster, fastest event?”

I listened quickly as I was given the rundown, “Windstream, is the nation’s leading voice-high speed internet and entertainment service companies servicing rural America in 16 markets. They’re introducing their new blazing fast high-speed internet connection and to celebrate, they want to gather a couple of world record fast people for a big shindig”.

I immediately said, “Yes”. Any place where there are world record holders, I want to be a part of.

Fast forward to May 5th. I was flown at the wee hours of the morning into Omaha, Nebraska. As soon as I got off the plane I was driven by Robyn, from the PR firm of Catalyst to our first radio interview. I had a blast. The second radio interview was a real treat, turns out the host, Tom Becka, used to be a fellow stand up comic. He had opened for me ten years ago at a comedy club in Ohio, now he is a radio host in Omaha and has even written a book called, “There’s no Business without the Show.” We talked about possibly doing a book tour together, funny how people come in and out of your life.

Before our next interview with NBC and checking into the hotel… Robyn and I decided we needed to grab a quick bite to eat. Always looking for an adventure, we ate at a place called the HuHot Mongolian Grill, where you “pillage” the raw meat, veggies and noodles from a buffet bar, and they cook it up right in front of you. The food was really good, despite the fact that the person who sat us, said he had not gathered up the courage to try it yet.

>> Continue reading "What happens when you put the fastest talker, clapper, harmonica player and juggler together?"

Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Well, it’s almost been three months since my mom passed on February 6th, and the hardest day so far (outside of the time she was sick and the funeral) was her birthday, which was April 22nd.

We have a small immediate family of four: My belly-dancing sister, Shahira, my niece, Athena, my son, Spencer and I.

We knew we all needed to be together on that day but we weren’t sure exactly how we wanted to spend it.

My son had school that day. My niece was off for spring break. We all were up in my house in Putnam. We decided we’d have a birthday party in her honor after Spencer came home from school. We invited our second family, the neighbors downstairs; Wanda and her kids; Vanessa, William and Isabel. All day long we prepared for the party and tried to do things that we knew my mom loved.

The two seven-year-olds made decorations and several hand made birthday cards. The cards were very touching.

Isabel drew a picture of my mom as a smiling angel and wrote: “We all miss you here at the Mauro/Capo residence, we wish for you to come visit us, we can’t wait for you to visit us. We hope you are having fun in heaven. We hope you made new friends.” For your birthday:

The gift of everything to Angel Rose Capo!!!

The gift of power, the gift of care, the gift of health, the gift of love!!!”

>> Continue reading "Talking to Mom… well, almost from the other side"

Permalink | TrackBack (0)

As some of you may remember, I am an ordained minister - I became one back in 2005 so I could be able to say the first non-denominational prayer down by the wreck site of the Titanic.

Yup, Reverend Fran Capo… completely able to perform baptisms and marriage ceremonies as quickly or slowly as you like! I don't do briss though, not trained in that area, nor do I want to be.

(By the way for those of you who don't know what a briss is, it's the Jewish rite of circumcision performed on a male child on the 8th day of his life. Unless of course the child is Catholic and the hospital forgot to do it… as such was the case with my son, Spencer so he had a makeshift briss on our kitchen table. Ouch!)

>> Continue reading "Reverend Capo talks at New Seminary or A Rabbi, a Priest and High Priestess walk into a…."

Permalink | Comments (2097) | TrackBack (0)

Since 2008 didn’t exactly start out the way I wanted with the loss of my mom and handling all the things that came with it…my wonderful boyfriend, Steve decided that I needed a quick weekend stress buster.

“Fran what are you doing from Friday, March 28-30?”
“Well, I’m doing my  “Dare to do it” talk on Wednesday, March 26 for the Westchester Century 21 awards breakfast, but I’m open on that weekend.”
“Good. Consider yourself booked.  We’re going on a surprise trip. Bring a bathing suit and your passport.”
“Nothing more?”
“That’s up to you.” I smiled.
I love surprises…let me change that…I love good surprises… I don’t want the Gods of future adventures to misinterpret that.

Ten minutes later I get a call from the Century 21. “Fran we need to change your speaking date to Monday, March 31. We need you here by 8 a.m. are you open?”
“Ah….Yes.”
I quickly called Steve back. “What time are we landing on Sunday night?”
“Midnight, be home by 1:30 AM.”
“Tight but I can do it”.

So with speech written, at 5:15 Friday morning, Steve and I head for the airport. Three hours later we arrive in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Now unless I’m mistaken Florida doesn’t’ require a passport. So I ask Steve, “So we are going on another plane or boat, right?”
“Nope. We are renting a car and visiting my mom.”
“Well unless your mom suddenly signed up and became and independent country…we don’t need a passport to visit her. Is she coming with us on the trip or was the passport thing just to throw me off?”
“You’ll see. You always wanted to go to Cuba right?”
“Yeah right, that’s on my bucket list.”

We rented a car and had a nice lunch with his sister and mom. I became a little teary eyed because Steve’s mom was on a cane and it reminded me of my mom…I just wanted to help and hug her. I was so happy Steve and I spent time with them.

After lunch we headed back to the airport, adventure style. You see the trunk of the convertible we rented decided not to lock, so for the entire time on the highway, I keep picturing the luggage catapulting into the air and smashing into another car… which would have put a damper on the trip. Luckily for us and the other drivers…the wind kept the trunk down so our luggage didn’t become projectile missiles.

>> Continue reading "The Mystery Tour - Temples and sliding into the Abyss"

Permalink | TrackBack (0)

I arrived back from Jamaica on Thursday at midnight. I was exhausted and went to sleep ready to face whatever challenge faced my mom and I, head on.

Friday, Jan 25th 2008
First thing in the morning I was over at the Hudson Valley Hospital.
As I was headed to my mom’s room I ran into the hospitalist , Dr. Demeterio. I tried to restrain my anger because it was her, who despite a message she left on my cell phone saying she had a concern about discharging my mother, did so anyway. If she was so concerned, why did she discharge an elderly woman with pneumonia who was protesting to stay? (Echoes from Sicko rang in my head.)

Very smugly, Dr. Demeterio said, “ “It was lucky that your mom came back into ER that night. We wound up running a whole battery of tests.” (Of course why these tests weren’t done before remains a mystery.)

She continued, “ We’ve discovered she has a lump under her left arm. We believe its cancer. That would explain her swelling. A biopsy is going to be done on Monday and then we’ll know for sure. Not sure what kind of cancer yet, but the puzzle pieces are adding up. We have her on a machine to drain fluid from her lungs. I’ve told your mother she may have cancer. Your mother is not strong; she won’t be able to take chemo. Be prepared for the worst.”

“You told my mother! Why would you do that before the biopsy has been done? Do me a favor don’t be so quick to write my mother off. And while we’re at it. How is it that she is on a lung machine now having her fluids drained, and she wasn’t on one prior to leaving the hospital? She was back in ER within the hour. How is it that in a hour, fluid accumulated in her lungs?” Why wasn’t a chest x-ray done before you let her go?

She said, “We were going to do a follow up x-ray, and she was reacting well to the antibiotics. We are doing all we can for your mother.”

I was not feeling the love for this doctor at the moment. If this were a cartoon, she would be thrown off a cliff.

I walked into my mom’s room she was attached to all kinds of tubes and her body was swollen from toes to the middle of her back. I mean really swollen like a balloon.

My mom and I talked for a while. She was in pain. They had her on percoset; they also gave her a shot of Torodol. Mom said this was the worst week of her life so far…with all the tests.

In my heart, I didn’t think my mom had cancer. After all she had been in the hospital originally from March 26th till Sept. 10th, surely if she had cancer, one of the many doctors would have spotted it before now. Plus, a chest CAT scan had been done in August and there were no signs.

Dr. Demeterio came in the room…my mom immediately tensed up…I knew she didn’t like her. I mentioned to her that my mom looked dehydrated. She said, “That’s the least of your problems.”
Again I wanted to smack her with a tire iron. Could this woman be any colder!
“Well I’d like her on an IV…last I heard water was important to the human body.”
Shortly after she was put on an IV.

Before I left the hospital that day, I checked in with my mom’s former roommate, who had been moved to another floor. She witnessed along with her friend, my mom being forced to sign the discharge papers. I was furious and called the supervisor.

At that moment however I had to make a decision. Are my energies going to be focused on what was done, or what I could do now to help my mom? I chose the later, figuring I could deal with the other matters after my mom was better.

After I left the hospital I went into mission mode. I started calling all the doctors my mom had seen since March 26th and asking for copies of all her medical records. I knew it would take a few days for this information to be gathered and I wanted to have it on hand if anyone needed it to help my mom…I felt I was going to need this get a second opinion, and just try to see if anyone missed anything.

I called my sister and told her what was happening. She threw up.
I talked to my seven-year-old niece, Athena. Over the phone we did visualization for my mom together.

It was going to be a long weekend.

Saturday, Jan 26
Believing in the power of prayer, I sent out a mass email to my friends asking them to visualize my mom cooking manicotti in her new kitchen. I got hundreds of responses. I printed out some of them and later read them to my mom. Her eyes lit up, ”Wow” is all she could say.

At 12:50 pm, I spoke Dr. George, the oncologist for the fist time. She told me that my Mom complained of pains in bone, ribs and spine. So they did a bone scan. It shows she has metastic disease (which means it looks like cancer has spread.) She said my mom also has tumor markers in her blood. The normal CEA level is less than 5. My mom has 254. We’ll know more after the biopsy…but there is hope.”
This woman I wanted to hug.

Because of the mass email, my friend Catherine decided to come to the hospital to visit my mom with her new boyfriend Ron. Ron and I clicked right away and we were making my mom and Catherine laugh with our banter. They brought my mom beautiful flowers. My mom told Catherine, “I like this guy, hold onto him.” Catherine smiled.

My sister and my niece came up that night too. They visited with my mom for a while. My mom was surrounded by love.

That night I thanked God for all my wonderful friends who were being so supportive. I also thanked God that even though we had a small family we had a strong one.

>> Continue reading "My Mom A Story in Three parts: Part II – Finding a Cure for Cancer"

Permalink | TrackBack (0)