more2ignore: Our Encounter with Chloe Bennet

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Our Encounter with Chloe Bennet

*** Note -- we will be editing this over time, to include the video from C2E2,and other items as we are able.

This should have been written 4 years ago, even though it has been contemplated often since the first thought of it. .

But on the day (and maybe even the hour) that Agents of SHIELD is ending its run on ABC, I wanted to share with the world our family’s experience with one of its stars, Chloe Bennet. Chloe portrays Daisy Johnson, who was first introduced as “Skye” and then, after changing from computer hacker to Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division)., and transforming into the superpowered Inhuman Quake.

2016 was my oldest daughter’s first experience at C2E2, the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo.

My daughter is shy, and so it took her a while to gather her courage to get in line to ask a question. However, we finally made our way to the back of the line. But because there was such a large crowd, the organizers told people on our end of the line that we had to sit down. My daughter was so disappointed. But apparently Chloe was observing the crowd, and had my daughter and another young girl come back up and ask their question.

Because this was her first experience with a celebrity, and with the large crowd watching, was nervous. But Chloe was able to help coach my daughter in completing the question. She then gave a fun answer.

At the end, she also invited many of us to come up on stage to get a selfie. I just gotten a new phone, and didn’t know how to do selfies at the time. so I messed up our visual memory of the event. But even if I were as tech savvy as Daisy Johnson, I still couldn’t have captured the full memories and feelings of that day.

What Chloe didn’t know when she had Mia come back was that this was actually the day before my daughter’s 11^th birthday. so just getting that chance totally made her birthday, and Chloe honored her by having the entire auditorium wish her happy birthday, which just amplified that.

There were actually a couple of other things that she didn’t find out that day (but hopefully now). My daughter is ¼ Dutch & ¼ Indonesian (from me) and ½ black with a sprinkle of Native American (from my wife). So her speaking about her accomplishments as someone who is half-Chinese really excited & inspired all of our family.

The other thing that Chloe didn’t know was Mia’s “secret origin” story. She was born at 23 ½ weeks, 4 months early, weighing in at 15 ½ ounces. She survived an ambulance trip from the Weiss Hospital on the North Side of Chicago, down Lakeshore drive BEFORE it was reconstructed, and all the way to Rush Hospital on the near West Side of Chicago.

After 4 months in the NUCU , and 3 years of different types of therapies , Mia began pre-school, then elementary school, where she was #4 in her class. And now she has finished her first year of high school, achieving the number 1 spot.