We were sitting streetside at Lulu's, an outdoor cafe in Coconut Grove, with the significant other's grand-daughter, Elizabeth, and grandson, Bennett, last night, when it happened.
The air became electric and 20 year old Bennett's eyes widened to two round saucers. Even the waitress stopped in her tracks and stared. "LeBron," came a call from a diner at the restaurant directly across the street. "LeBron James, look this way."
I turned with everyone else (take a look at the accompanying photo snapped by Bennett who whipped out his cell phone to record the monent.) It was the Miami Heat's star himself, in a humongously large white, top down Bentley convertible, stopped at the corner, unable to make his turn because traffic had come to a standstill.
Forks stopped in mid-air. Drinks were forgotten for the moment. Grand-daughter Elizabeth, in her mid-twenties a sophisticated medical school graduate and hardly a breathless teen-ager, was instantly on her cell phone, calling a friend to report who was stopped literally in front of her table. The scene was truly surreal as this giant of a man waved and smiled then made his turn and disappeared into the night.
For the kids it was a great finish to a wonderful five day visit to Miami to see their grandfather who Bennett prounced as "very cool". Particularly when he showed off his bartending skill at making sour apple martinis one evening in my apartment. How many octogenarian grandfather's can pull that off with such aplomb.
This morning Bennett flew off to St. Louis where he is attending Washington University. Elizabeth returned to Bethesda, MD where she will receive her MD from Johns Hopkins in May. They spent time on South Beach, visited Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens, and partied with relatives. But I bet that moment with LeBron will be something they both remember.
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Photo caption #1: Bennett's photo catches the back of my head as I stare awestruck at the Miami Heat's superstar.
Photo caption #2: The kids and their grandfather at Fairchild Gardens
