Ann Trachtenberg knows how to make an exit. When the chemo patient walked out of the University of Wisconsin’s Carbone Cancer Center on Monday, not only was she greeted by friends and family, but the whole UW Marching Band.
Five months ago when Ann began her chemotherapy treatment at the center for breast cancer, she had made a joke about that, saying that a marching band should welcome her when she would finish her treatment. That joke became a reality and the marching band kicked into an upbeat jam as soon as she exited the door. The musical gag of course was a welcoming surprise for Ann as she hugged her daughter Lindsey and told a band member “Thank you, this was great!”
Ann had forgotten about the marching band joke, but her primary nurse, Kelly Jones, said it was Ann’s niece who thought it would be fun to follow up with it and contacted the marching band.
Since Anne’s departure the video has been viewed some 300,000 times from The Carbone Cancer Center’s Facebook page and thousands of posts from well-wishers.
“We’ve never had anything like this before,” Susan Lampert Smith, the center’s spokeswoman, said of the response to the video. “It touches a lot of hearts.”
Ann will have to continue maintenance treatments, and her daughter Lindsey took to Facebook to thank the Carbone Center for everything they had done for her mother.
“Thank you to the UW Carbone Center for taking great care of my mom, to the UW marching band for providing the perfect celebratory soundtrack, to my amazing cousin for all she has done over the past few months, to our family and friends who have provided support in many ways, and to all of you for your kind and supportive comments here!”