As this year comes to a close, we need to remember the good in people. God knows we’ve seen enough hate, and violence, and contempt for people. We need to uplift one another and highlight those who do it in big in small ways..everyday.
Dolly Parton is an incredible human being.She reminds me a lot of my late friend, the wonderful Brooks Robinson in that, like Brooks, Dolly is an icon with a heart go gold and someone everybody loves.
Here’s a story that will lift your spirits. We need more people like Dolly Parton in this world.
Dolly is making dreams come true
Utah resident LeGrand Gold has been a fan of the country superstar his entire life. So when he learned he’d been diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer in 2021, the bucket list he made to keep his spirits up of course included a meeting with Parton.
The “Jolene” singer, helped Gold complete the bucket list item, giving him a surprise phone call just before Christmas.
“She sang a song, put my name in the song. I feel like I’m immortal now,” he told local NBC affiliate KSL of the chat with Parton. “That was really cool. It made me feel good.”
Gold’s wife Alice tells PEOPLE that the call meant the world to their family.
“We’ve been flying above the silver lining for days,” she says. “Out of the 11 items [on the list], we thought Dolly would be the impossible, but true to Dolly form, she once again reminds the world that dreams really do come true.”
In a video of the call that was shared to YouTube, Parton greets Gold as “LG,” and calls herself “Dolly P.”
“I’m just happy to know that I’ve got a fan that devoted and that I’ve had a chance to watch that journey all these years,” she says. “I’m just happy that we got to kind of have our journey together in this lifetime. I always want to make people happy with my music and with the things I do and the things I say and I’m just happy to know that I’ve touched your life in some way. So thank you for honoring me with that.”
Gold, told the star that she’s been “a huge help” amid his cancer battle, and Alice praises both her music and character, as well as her book gifting program Imagination Library, which Alice says was a help to her children.
As they wrap the call, Parton tells Gold she “will always love” him before quipping, “I should’ve sung that, shouldn’t I?” Afterwards, she does just that, swapping her famous lyric with, “I will always love LG.”
“People will forget what you say. People will forget what you do. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”-Maya Angelou
