Anne has her fans
For many people this one day of the year offers a chance to fulfill a dream
One day a year, when singer Anne Murray makes herself available to fans, people come from all over the world to meet their idol.
Kellie Maclean wasn’t going to let a heart attack stop her from meeting Anne Murray.
The New Zealand woman survived a brain aneurism and instead of a potential life-ending experience, Maclean says her health battle provided a life-defining moment and she created what’s commonly known as the bucket list: things to do before one dies.
While those from Atlantic Canada would probably put visiting New Zealand on their list, Maclean put down a visit to Springhill to meet Anne Murray.
And nothing was going to stop her.
“I was all set to go and then it was my birthday in June and I had a heart attack,” Maclean said Saturday in the former mining community where Anne Murray hails from. “’I thought, I can’t go, but then I thought, I’m going. It’s my bucket list.”
Maclean has listened to Murray’s music since she was 16, and making the pilgrimage to the singer’s hometown is a common story. An assembly of nations of sorts met in Springhill Saturday to do just that. Australians joined New Zealanders and an assortment of American visitors, as well as Canadians from across the country came to the former mining town, on the one day of the year they are guaranteed to meet the retired musical artist – Anne Murray Day.
“I adore her as a celebrity, as a person, as a role model for young people growing up,” Tom Turner said.
Turner and his wife, Tami, travelled from British Columbia to share part of the day with Anne. This was Turner’s third visit to Springhill and Anne Murray Centre, but their first time meeting Murray.
“Tom has always wanted to meet Anne Murray and he has
this bucket list, and this was one of the things on it,” Tami said.
This wasn’t Debra Manseau’s first visit either. She was here when Murray opened the centre in 1989 but never set foot in the centre.
“At the time, I was married to a not-so-nice person, and so we had to leave,” the Massachusetts guest said. “I never got a chance to go through the centre. I’ve always said I want to do this. Now I’m married to a wonderful nice man and I said let’s do this… I saw it on Facebook. I didn’t even know it was a possibility.”
Since the Anne Murray Centre opened, Murray has made herself available to the public for a day to support the centre and stay in touch with fans. There is a VIP luncheon and then autograph signing at the centre where fans share their stories. As they do, the centre’s executive director Wanita Shay smiles as she listens.
“I was very emotional walking in there,” Shay said following the luncheon. “I remembered each and every one of their stories. And there is a story to that connection they have with Anne’s music and Anne Murray. It’s helped them through the death of their father, it’s helped them through a hard time in their life. I could feel those stories when I went in.”
Many visitors from afar will tell you Shay was their champion when they thought visiting the small town off Highway 104 was just a pipe dream.
“She’s the one who got me here,” Maclean said. “I told her my bucket list was to go from New Zealand to Nova Scotia and find my roots in Cape Breton and then meet Anne Murray. And I was ‘Ha, ha, ha. Like that could ever happen.’ And she said ‘Oh, no. You can meet her. You can come to the VIP dinner and you can meet her.’”