- We get thousands of emails every day.
I wanted to read one I got from a viewer.
Her name is Rachel Luensen. She says "Dear Ellen,
"My sister Sarah and I are huge fans of your show,
"and watch every day.
"It has especially helped us recently,
"as we've been going through a difficult time.
"On November 30th, my sister was rushed to the hospital
"in London where she had been on vacation with her boyfriend,
"and she had to have emergency brain surgery.
"Thankfully, she is on the road to recovery.
"Throughout all of this, she has had the most positive attitude,
"and your show has really been our outlet,
"giving us time to laugh, to cry and to forget.
"My sister's my best friend, and it would be our dream
"to get to come to your show and make a new memory together.
Please make our dream come true. Love, Rachel Luensen."
So Rachel and Sarah think they're about to Skype
with someone from the show, and that's true,
'cause they're going to Skype with me.
Hello?
[both scream really loudly] [audience cheers and applause]
Hi, surprise! [both continue screaming]
Hi, hi.
Hi!
Hi. How's it going?
Hello? [girls keep screaming]
[brief pause, then more screaming]
[audience laughter]
Oh...
[audience laughter]
Hi... Bye.
[audience laughter]
Hey, Rachel-- Hi Rachel, hi Sarah.
Rachel, I just read your email to the audience, and
so we wanted to meet you and check in,
and uh--you okay now?
- Kind of. - Yeah.
- Oh, my god, I can't believe this is happening!
- It's happening.
So--'cause it was a really sweet letter.
Sarah, your story is unbelievable.
Tell everybody what happened to you, exactly.
- Oh, my god. Um...
So, I was in London on vacation with my boyfriend, and
I was out to breakfast, and I all of a sudden just started
not feeling really well, like instantly.
I got a really bad headache, and my neck went numb,
and I just, like, felt really nauseous.
And so, we, you know, knew something wasn't right,
and went back to the apartment that we were renting.
And, making a long story short, I passed out,
and so, they had to do emergency brain surgery on me,
to fix the problem that was happening.
And I ended up being in London for three weeks longer,
during my recovery, and then came back to the States
to continue to fix the problem.
- Wow. - So, yeah.
- That's amazing. That must have been so scary
for you and your family, Rachel.
- Yeah, it was honestly the--
(starting to cry) the scariest thing of my life.
I mean...it--like, four hours after we heard,
we were on a plane, not knowing if...
I would have a sister after that day, and
it was just such a relief to see her in recovery,
and to see that, you know, she survived that night
and to hopefully start that recovery that she did.
- Yeah, well, you look amazing.
You look like you're doing really well,
and your attitude--have you-- - Thank you.
- Have you always been a positive person?
Or how did you stay so positive during this?
- Yeah, I've always been super positive, but
I guess just don't see any other way to look at it.
I mean, it's a really hard situation to go through,
and it's really stressful, but at the end of the day,
you know, you're still alive and that's what should matter.
Like, you should be positive about everything.
And honestly, Ellen, watching your show and watching you
is what keeps me positive, because you take every situation
in such a positive way, and it's so inspiring.
I can't tell you how inspiring it is.
- Well-- - So I just--
- Thank you. - I channel you!
- Oh, well, thank you so-- - Even while--
- Yes, go ahead. [applause]
- Even while she was in the hospital and I had to come back
to the States, I would watch your show.
and I would text my mom, like, things that happened
in your show, to tell her. And my mom said, like,
that's really what kept her going every day.
- Oh, my gosh, yeah.
- Well, thank you so much, and Rachel, in your email,
you said it was your dream to come to my show,
so--and my dream now is to meet y'all.
So we're going to fly you both to California,
give you VIP tickets, and, uh--
[both screaming] [audience applause]