Like most people reading this column, I already knew that you can't work in or near media and not be aware of the positive power of Hallmark Media. I thought I understood it all, but I was not prepared for the fresh real-life lessons I learned during the last few months.
I didn't see them coming, but once they hit, they didn't stop.
Not to sound too corny, but throughout a very difficult summer, Hallmark Happiness was everywhere.
It all began on Memorial Day morning when my mom suffered a sudden medical crisis of the kind that come out of nowhere and change everything in an instant. We have been blessed, in that she is in her nineties and had never experienced anything like this, including calls to 911, multiple emergency-room visits and two extended stays in elder-care rehab centers.
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On that fateful Memorial Day morning she was unable to use her legs, but her upper body was fine. Seeking comfort as we waited for the EMTs to arrive, she reached for a plush Hallmark robe I had received from the network in one of its promotional mailings.
The robe is white, with the Hallmark Channel logo in red emblazoned on the front. It stands out.
She was wearing that robe in the ambulance, which prompted the
EMTs -- one male, one female -- to begin talking about Hallmark on the way to the emergency room.
Not surprisingly, chatting about Hallmark, even under those circumstances, alleviated most of the tension of the moment. The female EMT explained that watching Hallmark movies was her preferred mode of relaxation after a long day on the job.
(That was not the first time my mother would hear someone say that about Hallmark movies throughout the summer.) Eventually the male EMT admitted that thanks to his girlfriend, he's hooked on Hallmark Channel, too.
The Hallmark talk continued in the emergency room, where various nurses and technicians took note of the robe and expressed their love for Hallmark.
I wasn't in the ambulance, or in the ER -- mom reported all this to me later after being admitted to the hospital. But I was in her room later that day, and often during the three days that followed, and constantly heard comments about Hallmark from medical personnel who came to check on her.
She always wore the robe to keep warm -- so the Hallmark logo was on continuous display.
From there mom went to an elder-care facility. She wouldn't let her caregivers launder the robe -- that was my job -- but it continued to spark conversations, not only with workers there but also with other residents and sometimes their visitors.
At one time I offered her a Netflix robe, simply for a change. She chose to stay with Hallmark.
Eventually mom came home, but her return was very brief. In less than 24 hours we had to call 911 again and she was brought to an ER in another hospital. The robe went with her, of course, and the conversations continued. The ER was especially busy that day, but the staff could not have been nicer.
After admiring mom's robe, the nurse who was tending to her amid the controlled chaos said that when her shift was over, she was going directly home to watch Hallmark.She was also going to open a bottle of wine. I asked if she had ever enjoyed one of Hallmark's wines. She hadn't, but I think that is now on her to-do list.
After a couple days in that hospital, mom moved into another senior-care facility, where the robe caused yet more excitement.
Not to sound naïve, but it was around this time that I began to wonder if advertising executives and television journalists -- not to mention Hallmark employees -- truly comprehend the depth of this brand's importance to people. I mean, I'm sure they do, given the specifics of their work. I certainly thought I did.
But it is another thing entirely to have a collective real-life experience like this one, which for me went way beyond the everyday markers of Hallmark's success.
It is yet another example of the power of cable television done right -- at a time when some say cable can't do anything right at all.
By July I had lost count of the number of people with whom I had randomly discussed Hallmark, so I decided to send an email to a Hallmark Media executive because I wanted to let people there know what I had been experiencing. She responded by sending a big box of Hallmark merch for me to share with mom's caregivers.
The contents of the box went quickly -- it was as if Christmas had come early to that facility. One item did not get past mom; a plush red blanket, with a white Hallmark logo. (The opposite of the robe.) The blanket stayed on mom's bed for the rest of her stay there.
Mom is home now and doing much better. The is almost her old self again. The robe and the blanket are never far away.
To be honest, she was always more Lifetime Movie Network than Hallmark Channel, but that has changed ... just in time for the holiday season.