Tracy Cooper will soon be on her way to Australia with talk-show host Oprah Winfrey – in a plane flown by movie star John Travolta.
“I still can’t believe it,” the Kamloops labour and delivery nurse said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “It’s like a dream.”
Cooper was one of 300 fans in the audience for The Oprah Winfrey Show’s season premiere Monday, when Oprah announced the vacation giveaway.
“[Oprah] was teasing the audience, saying she wanted to take us on a trip but she wasn’t sure where to go,” said Cooper. “The audience was getting louder and louder, so when she announced it was Australia, I didn’t really hear her.
“I didn’t realize where we were going until I saw the Australian flags everywhere.”
The trip is being sponsored in part by a $3-million contribution from the Australian government, which hopes to boost tourism by having Winfrey highlight national attractions and film several shows in Sydney’s famed opera house.
Cooper won tickets to the premiere of the show’s 25th and final season by responding to Oprah’s Ultimate Fan contest with an entry about an episode that made a difference in her life.
Cooper wrote about a parenting episode that reminded her to make more time for her children, and an episode with author Gary Zukav, who helped parents who had just lost a baby.
“It really impacted me and helped me as a [neonatal] nurse to understand what parents are going through in that situation,” she said.
When Cooper heard she might be selected to receive tickets for the premiere, she couldn’t sleep. The trip was eventually confirmed in late August, and she and her mother, another Oprah fan, travelled to Chicago last week for the taping.
“I was just so happy to be there, I had no idea what was going to happen,” said Cooper.
Seeing Oprah in person was “amazing.”
“She’s the same on the air as she is during the breaks. She’s so sweet.”
On Dec. 5, Cooper and her mother will fly to L.A., where they and about 300 other fans will depart for Australia in a plane flown, at least part of the way, by actor and pilot John Travolta.
The group will have eight days Down Under to shop, go to the beach and spend time with Oprah.
The trip will be slightly bittersweet for Cooper, who is “sad” to see Oprah’s show leave the air.
“I’m planning to sign up for the [Oprah Winfrey] network for sure,” she said.
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