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<\/a><\/p>\nKelsey Hoffman is probably the biggest fan of Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood you\u2019ll ever find yet even though she\u2019s a Sioux Falls area girl, she won\u2019t be seated in the audience at any of their 9 shows at the Sanford Premier center this week and next.<\/p>\n
No, she plans to actually be back stage helping the concert crews with anything and everything that needs doing.<\/p>\n
She wouldn\u2019t have to, of course, because Garth is a big fan of Kelsey and her family; has been for years. She could have the best seat in the house\u2026and, in fact, has. Let\u2019s go back ten years to when I first learned of this special Garth Brooks-Kelsey Hoffman bond.<\/p>\n Our grandson, Taylor Smith, graduated with Kelsey in 2007 from West Central High in Hartford. After the ceremony they..and two other classmates..wanted to have their reception together so their parents\u00a0 rented the American Legion Hall. As we were all sitting at tables enjoying coffee and cookies, I noticed a guy wearing a big black hat entering the building. \u201cThat looks like Garth Brooks,\u201d I said. And I was right..but what in the world was he doing in this little town and this little graduation reception?<\/p>\n Garth Brooks with grandson, Taylor Smith 2007<\/p><\/div>\n Seventeen years ago, the world couldn\u2019t have looked much bleaker for Anita Hoffman of Hartford. Her husband, Dale, was sick and doctors couldn\u2019t figure out what was wrong.<\/p>\n He was eventually diagnosed with Antiphospholipid Syndrome..a rare type of blood disorder that required treatment at the Mayo Clinic. The prognosis wasn\u2019t good.<\/p>\n While still reeling from the possibility of losing Dale, the couple\u2019s ten year old daughter, Kelsey, started complaining of headaches.<\/p>\n A trip to the doctor confirmed she had brain cancer and needed to begin treatments right away.<\/p>\n For several months, Anita and her other daughter, Robin, were making trips between hospitals in Rochester, Minnesota for Dale and Sioux Falls for Kelsey.<\/p>\n Amid this sea of despair came a single bright spot. Kelsey\u2019s dream of meeting country music superstar, Garth Brooks, was going to come true through the Make a Wish foundation. So the whole family, including Dale, were flown to the New York Mets Spring training camp where Brooks was working out with the team. It turned out to be..as they say..the beginning of a beautiful friendship.<\/p>\n Brooks was so touched by little Kelsey\u2019s smile and the whole family\u2019s strength in facing their ordeal, he vowed to keep in touch.<\/p>\n He\u2019s been true to his word.<\/p>\n When Dale Hoffman died, Garth Brooks dropped everything and, without any fanfare, quietly slipped into Hartford to attend the funeral and be with the family.<\/p>\n Kelsey has since been his invited guest to several events..including being Garth\u2019s date for a country music award show in California.<\/p>\n On that day in 2007, a limousine showed up at the Hoffman house in Harftford \u00a0to take Kelsey to her high school graduation. She burst into tears when out stepped her friend from Oklahoma wearing his trademark big cowboy hat.<\/p>\n Garth had come to be there for her special day; the same Garth Brooks who had won every major award in country music. The same Garth Brooks who ten years earlier, set an attendance record at the Sioux Falls Arena..selling out six concerts in three days? Yet here he was standing in this little reception hall smiling and greeting people.\u00a0 (Garth with Kelsey 2007)<\/p>\n I finally got the nerve to go up and say howdy and ask him about his relationship with the Hoffman family. He just said, \u201cI\u2019ve never met three more powerful women in my life than Anita, Kelsey and Robin and I\u2019ve found strength through them.\u201d<\/p>\n People at the reception who initially rushed over to get an autograph and picture, need not have been in a hurry. Brooks hung around for two hours making sure to say hello and have a photo with the other four graduates, their families and guests..including grandson, Taylor. Then as unobtrusively as he entered, he quietly exited to his waiting private jet to fly back home in time to make one of his own daughter\u2019s ballgames.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to see why Garth was so taken with Kelsey. She is a sweetheart who has been through more than anyone should have to endure in a lifetime. Yet there\u2019s a spirit about her which is both endearing and inspirational.<\/p>\n \u201cGarth has sort of been like a second dad to Kelsey,\u201d Anita Hoffman told me.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever she needs encouragement or advice, she\u2019ll call him and he\u2019ll often call her out of the blue just to see how she\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n