Jay Leno to the rescue

The household had a night out at the second night of Jay Leno's Comedy Stimulus Concert thanks to the help of many.

Katie's boyfriend waited in line for at least four hours to get the free tickets to the Leno show in Detroit, or, as Jay acknowledged Wednesday, in Auburn Hills.

An ex-coworker had the right words to lead us to the Palace of Auburn Hills staff who found us a suite far from the crowd. Palace staff went the extra mile, making sure that we didn't have to stand outside in any lines. That made it safe to go despite low blood counts.

A splurge on popcorn and cotton candy complimented the free pop and chips on a non-organic night. Free parking too!

I was watching Leno on March 9, waiting for my favorite Headlines segment, when he announced the show:

"I'm watching our president and he's saying what we should do to help. We got this bad economy thing and well, I tell jokes...so how can I help out? So I was thinking, an awful lot of people unemployed, out of work, don't have any entertainment dollars...Well, one of my favorite places is Detroit, and there are so many out-of-work autoworkers. People work hard their whole lives, they're saving their money and so I thought, why don't I go to Detroit and do (my comedy) show?"

"I want to do a show for the, not just the auto workers, but anyone out of work in Detroit. But it'll be free. It won't cost you a dime.

"Not that I'm the greatest comic in the world, but it's free. If you don't like it, you get your money back!"

On March 16, Katie's boyfriend took some time out from job hunting to stand in a long line with another unemployed friend to get the maximum four tickets. If we couldn't use them, we know plenty of unemployed relatives and friends. He was almost to the front of the line when they announced the show was sold but a second was being added.

That was our first break as the first show was on the same day as Katie's chemo, not a good day for outside events.

Our daughter's immune system is breaking down slowly from chemo- 12 treatments done, four to go - so the idea of being with lots of people was frightening. Worse though was the idea of standing in line outside - you know how quickly the weather in Michigan can change - to get general admission seating.

That's why the actions of the Palace to get us a suite was so helpful.

An estimated 15,000 people were expected - and you know that we'd be sitting next to the sickest. Instead, there were eight of us in one suite.

There was even a private bathroom and a couch so we could rest, listening to the opening band The Sun Messengers. We moved to seats right outside the suite for Leno, who kept us laughing for nearly 90 minutes.

Not bad for a 58-year-old who shared stories about his parents, growing old, and played off several stories in the news.

Laughter, tweaked by kindness, was just the medicine we needed.