Before taking the stage at the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio on Thursday night, Keith Urban made a surprise visit to the hospital bedside of a devoted fan.
The country music superstar, 50, visited Mercy Health St. Vincent Hospital, where superfan Marissa English is currently in hospice care.
English’s health is rapidly declining, WTOL-11 reported. The 25 year old has “a myriad of health conditions including water and an inoperable cyst on her brain, severe scoliosis and cerebral palsy.”
But that hasn’t stopped her from falling in love with Urban and his music.
“She has memorabilia from a couple of the other concerts we’ve been to. She has a t-shirt that we put on a pillow that’s beside her all the time,” Marlise Matthews, English’s mother, told WTOL-11. “It’s actually cute because she’ll pick up the pillow and hug it and kiss it [and] … she’ll point at it and say ‘Mr. Hottie.’ ”
When it was clear English wouldn’t be able to make it to Urban’s show on Thursday despite having tickets, her nurses stared a social media campaign to get him to visit.
“We knew how important it was to Marissa to be at that concert,” nurse Jan Cassity explained to WTOL-11, adding that English’s health is rapidly declining. “Since she wasn’t able to we were hoping to try and find some way to have Keith make a connection with her.”
“She just has such a fascination with Keith and loves to watch him on TV and listen to his music,” Jackie Codding, English’s in-home nurse said to WTOL-11. “I think it would mean the world to her.”
Urban got the message, and he was there before his big performance.
Video from inside the hospital room captured Urban kneeling beside English, singing his 2016 hit “Blue Ain’t Your Color” to an iPhone karaoke track while holding her hand. “I’d be playing this song right now if I had my guitar with me right now,” he tells her.
English was all smiles throughout the tune, smiling and mouthing the words back to him.
The two also posed for pictures together.
Later, in front of a sold-out crowd at the Huntington Center, Urban spoke about meeting “a beautiful girl named Marissa … who I truly think is my biggest fan,” WTOL-11 reported.
“Her family is here and so are some of her pediatric ICU nurses,” Urban said according to WTOL-11, gesturing at them. “We’re going to dedicate this whole show tonight to her, to Marissa.”
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