NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A New Orleans woman got the surprise of a lifetime while sitting in the audience of “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
Sara Ismail needed to find her happiness.
“I was just at the lowest point. I had just been laid off and I wasn’t expecting it,” Ismail said.
So, she went looking for happiness in New York City this past Christmas.
“I said I was going to New York and I’m going to see a live show and I happened to go to Drew Barrymore’s,” she said.
Ismail felt the love after she got the chance to take part in a trivia contest while being an audience member on “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
“It was on a segment with Mario Carbone. The trivia question was how many different types of pasta there were. The answer was over 600, and I got it right,” Ismail said.
With her correct answer, she ended up winning two round-trip plane tickets with all expenses paid to Italy.
“I broke down crying happy tears,” she said.
After her unemployment, this was the first time in a long time she felt happy again.
“I was in the right place, right time, and I trusted the timing of everything,” she said.
Ismail could’ve never imagined that her favorite actress would be the one to help her heal with a trip, but more importantly encouragement.
“She felt like home. She felt like family. She made me feel like I was the only person in the room with her,” Ismail said.
Ismail briefly shared with Drew Barrymore that she lost her job.
“She really made me feel like it’s okay to start over, there’s great things coming. She told me to go find my gusto,” Ismail said.
And just like that, Barrymore helped give Ismail her gusto back.
Ismail mentioned she is now a film student at the University of New Orleans. She will be taking her trip to Italy in August.
“The Drew Barrymore Show” airs weekdays on WNOL-NOLA-38.
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