The DJ Blues....

Well just for a change of pace (and avoid the school days stories), I want to mention the DJ job I did over at Magnetic Island on the weekend.
I took the 9:00am vehicular ferry over on Saturday. Even though the wedding gig was scheduled for 6:00pm that afternoon, I always like to go over early to set up the equipment, tweak the cords and cables, and suss out the best entry and exit strategies for before and after the reception. Basically, I want things to go smoothly with no surprises or problems for the happy couple. Nothing is worse than having your wedding ruined by lousy music.
Anyway, it was a cool morning, and the ferry ride was lovely. By 9:45am I was at the reception place (Magnetic Island International) and hauling my equipment in. Even though I took my time, I had finished setting up by 10:45am. Everything was working, in place and looking great!
Since I had many hours to kill, I decided to drive to Horseshoe Bay on the other side of the island, and take a short nap in the small park there. Horseshoe Bay is the calmest bay I have ever seen....always there are NO waves lappng at the beach. It is large and tranquil, and is a popular place for families to come. Though on this day (being that it's Winter here), it wasn't that busy, so I had a very pleasant nap under a tree, ocassionally opening my eyes to see the calmess of the bay. Total paradise!
At about 12:30pm I decided to go and have some lunch. But first I just sat under the tree to soak in the sights again. Then a bus pulled up behind me, and some people got out - and this little girl walked right by where I was sitting. She must have been perhaps 4 years old. Perhaps I looked odd to her, because she stared at me all the while whilst walking by me. But it wasn't a rude stare; she smiled a friendly smile as if to say "I'm having such a fun day on Magnetic Island and nothing can dampen my mood, and just wanted to say hi". She was so very cute! :)
Then I noticed something - the poor little dear had her left arm severed just above the elbow. It didn't appear to be a deformity, it was obviously an operation that happened early on in her life. My heart sank! :( Of course she wasn't stressed in any way, but seeing her innocent pretty little face, it just made me feel so sorry for her. She soon walked away with her family...and after gathering myself, made my way to a local hotel there for lunch.
Later, I killed more time by soaking up the sights of the other bays, then going into the reception area again to once again fine tune my equipment. I decided to get dressed into "DJ" mode at about 4:30pm, and figured I just stay until the guests arrive. In the meantime, I played some of my favourite songs.
The guests starting showing up on the dot of 6:00pm and I got into "work" (if you can call playing music "work"). As fate would have it, that same little girl was amongst the wedding guests! She was dancing and playing with other little girls and having a great time. Obviously her ailment had been around for some time, as the other little children took absolutely no notice of it. Though one of them took the little girl's arm as if to hold her hand at one stage.
I actually began to feel tears in my eyes. This poor little girl was so innocent (or perhaps mature), that the realization of the horror of her injury was never in her thoughts for a moment. It didn't seem fair that she was like this, and I really felt awful. I think maybe I felt so bad, not because of her plight, but because of how brave she was for someone so young. I'm not sure she was well adjusted because of her young age, whether it was because it happened a long time ago or simply because she was mature enough to comprehend what happened and able to move beyond it. Obviously I had trouble :(
I think we all could've learned something from this little angel. I really wish her a safe and happy life.