Danielle Thibodeau © (2xphotos)

Backstage at the Boston Garden on November 10th 1971.There's a nice story behind these two photographs, the little girl held by the man on the photographs is Lise Thibodeau, the other woman is her sister Danielle and the man is unknown.

Lise has always dreamt to see Elvis in concert, his dream was about to come true when she made the trip from Quebec City to Boston for attending the show there. When they got in the Garden Danielle was with her sister in her wheelchair and was trying to find a place near the stage, she was trying to negotiate with some peoples working there as it was impossible for her to use the seat on the 27th row because of the wheelchair, I must add at this time that Lise couldn't be seated in a normal seat as she was paralyzed and had all sorts of health problems.

Given the above it seemed that the persons working there didn't want to accommodate her, at the same moment Colonel Parker was near the mixing desk besides the stage and noticed that the two girls were having a hard time with these peoples, he went and asked what's going on, so someone explained that she had to be place in a particular area otherwise it would be impossible for Lise to attend the show.

Colonel Parker told to a man seated in the first row to take Lise in his arms (man on the photographs and totally unknown by Lise & Danielle) and that they should follow him, which everyone did without knowing exactly where they were heading, Danielle tought at first that they would see some sorts of manager that would settled everything, at one point they reached a door that Colonel Parker opened, and behind was Elvis with some of his friends.

When Lise realized that it was Elvis in front of her she started crying and never stopped until the meeting was over, Elvis tried to speak to her but the problem was that both women barely spoke English as they were French-Canadians, so when Elvis understood that a conversation was just impossible, someone arranged for some photos to be taken, you'll notice on the right photograph that he has his mouth open, at some point Elvis was singing a song in a very low voice, who knows perhaps he thought she would stop crying but it didn't really work, Danielle has never been able to identify what he was singing at the time, she said that it was an unknown song to her and as her English was limited then, which made it tougher to know exactly what was the song.

Lise and her sister returned in front of the stage where Lise had a spot close to the stage,would like to add here that Lise passed away in the early eighties.

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