Magnificent Desolation_ The Long Journey Home From the Moon - Buzz Aldrin [151]
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FINAL
FRONTIERS
EARLY IN OUR MARRIAGE, LOIS CONFIDED TO ME THAT SHE always wanted to be a movie star and to interact with the interesting and famous people of the world. Imagine how tickled she was when none other than Robin Leach, of the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous television show, contacted us to do an interview. “But, Robin, Buzz may be famous as a result of walking on the moon,” Lois gently protested, “but we’re not rich.” Robin didn’t mind; he seemed to know instinctively that our marriage would take Lois and me around the world and into the presence of not only the rich and famous, but presidents and royalty as well.
One of our royal encounters occurred when I was asked to speak at a university in Madrid, Spain. After the event, we had a little extra time, and wondered what to do. Lois asked, “Do you know anyone in Madrid?”
I thought for a moment, then said, “The only person that I know in Madrid is the king.” Lois looked at me and cocked her head, uncertain whether I was joking or not.
“I think I’ll give him a call,” I said. I looked in my address book, found the phone number for the king and queen, and called Juan Carlos, the king of Spain. I had met Juan Carlos, of course, during the Apollo 11 world tour, so when I called and told him we were in Madrid, the king said, “Come on over.” We did, and we enjoyed the marvelous hospitality of the Spanish royalty. Lois loves meeting world leaders, and I don’t think she has ever doubted me on such matters since that trip to Madrid.
Over the last twenty years, Lois and I have had a lot of fun growing the “business of Buzz.” We have worked with some of the world’s leading innovators and their enterprises and have enjoyed every minute of it. More recently I have been honored to collaborate with some well-known companies to create and develop space-inspired products in connection with the launch of my Rocket Hero™ brand. Perhaps through these efforts we can generate excitement and interest in space.
Throughout all our activities, Lois and I have maintained a travel schedule that most twenty-year-olds would have a hard time matching. As Lois likes to say, “They may be in full swing, but we are in full orbit.” And like anyone who travels frequently, Lois and I have experienced our share of travel nightmares, ranging from canceled flights to the time when I lost my passport while on a trip out of the country. Perhaps the most memorable close call occurred in a way we least expected.
In February 2005, Lois and I were in Brussels for Earth and Space Week, where I was to speak at the space conference. The next day we were scheduled to have dinner with two ambassadors—Rockwell Schnabel, the U.S. envoy to the European Union, and Chris Korologos, the American ambassador to Belgium. But when I woke up that morning, I found I could hardly speak or pronounce any words clearly enough to be understood. Alarmed, Lois called the ambassador’s office, and they sent an ambulance for me right away. We spent the rest of the day in a Belgian hospital, where the doctors ran all sorts of tests and it was determined that I had suffered a kind of mini-stroke. Slowly, before the day was over, my speech returned and I felt fine. We went on to Gstaad, Switzerland to stay with our friend Heidi Chantre-Eckes in her ski chalet, and enjoyed an energetic day of skiing. But as soon as we returned to the United States, I was subjected to a series of intensive medical examinations.
After seeing a number of doctors, I was led to Dr. Willis Wagner, a classmate of Lisa’s from Stanford and one of the top vascular surgeons in the country. The matter was urgent, he said. “You’re going to the hospital tomorrow morning.” He performed a successful operation, removing a large blood clot. If the blood vessel had burst, it could have caused a major stroke that would have impaired me for the rest of my life, or possibly even killed me. Fortunately, the