A once-in-a-lifetime experience for Glenwood woman
Sandy Wadlington appears on ‘Wheel of Fortune’, a show she grew up watching
Growing up in Harvey, Sandy Wadlington would watch the game show “Wheel of Fortune” with her dad, which was his way of relaxing after finishing his job as a letter carrier.
The two would compete to see who’d be the first to answer the puzzle, and Wadlington said that friendly contest with her dad helped her with spelling in school.
Now living in Glenwood, Wadlington said she has been a regular viewer of “Wheel of Fortune” for more than four decades. She will appear on the show Friday in a segment that was taped in August.
“The experience was a once-ina-lifetime thing,” she said. “I was relaxed, there was no pressure.”
Wadlington could not say in advance of the show, which will air at 6:30 p.m. on ABC7, how she made out. But she said planned to use any winnings to donate to her church and take a trip.
She said her daughter is planning a viewing party for perhaps 20 family and friends, and Wadlington said she has extended family throughout the country who she expects will tune in.
Wadlington, who has lived in Glenwood for 15 years, graduated from Thornton High School in 1982 and has many classmates who remain close friends.
“I’m sure they’ll be watching too,” she said.
Wadlington said she has worked as a nurse since 1986 and is an administrator for care coordination at Cook County’s Stroger Hospital, with responsibilities including patient discharge planning and ensuring they have follow-up care.
How she came to be on the game show “was totally a fluke, it really was,” she said.
Wadlington said she was working from home, watching the show, and saw that viewers who wanted to appear on the show were encouraged to submit a video.
“I grabbed a blouse and brushed my hair and took a video telling them about me and my dad and how we watched the show,” she said.
Wadlington said she believes she submitted the video in April or May, and forgot about it until weeks later when she received an email
informing her she had been selected for a virtual audition.
She learned in July she had made the selection process, and went to Los Angeles the following month.
“It was kind of surreal and I’m thinking ‘am I really here?’ ” Wadlington said.
She said that everybody involved with the program made her feel at home.
“They did everything they could to make sure we were relaxed,” she said.
The show’s host, Pat Sajack, who grew up on Chicago’s Southwest Side, is “a really nice guy, very personable,” Wadlington said.
She said her father has since died, but thinks he would be proud to know his longtime Wheel viewing companion made it onto the show.
“I know he is smiling and saying, ‘she made it, she actually made it,’ ” Wadlington said.