South Florida, U.S.A.
SOUTH FLORIDA, U.S.A. BY NICHOLAS SPANGLER
When hope gets cheesyThe woman who bit the grilled cheese sandwich bearing the likeness of the Virgin Mary is touched by her notoriety.
By Nicholas Spangler
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CBS4 Video | Duyser explains why she's getting the tattoo
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On Diana Duyser's right breast there was, at last, just in time for Friday's evening newscast, a tattoo of a grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary burned faintly into the crust.
It was smaller than most actual grilled cheese sandwiches and iridescent under the Vaseline's protective coat when she turned into the Washington Avenue sun. A crowd was watching. More specifically, a production crew from a television show called Miami Ink was watching a TV news crew watching some tourists from Nebraska watching this exquisitely rendered image on her breast, and everybody was filming everybody else.
But what of the thing itself, the very grub that gave rise to this hallucination? It was on the edge of the crowd, in a padded glass case held by the pious spokesman for an Internet casino that two years ago paid Diana $28,000 on eBay for the sandwich and another $6,000 for the frying pan in which it was made.
''The whole thing is weird,'' Kat Von D had said hours before. Kat is a beautiful tattoo artist from Los Angeles with stars tattooed on her temple and pinup girls on her arm. ``Aren't there sightings all the time? People are looking to fill some void. They're reaching. Everybody's reaching. I do love grilled cheese, though. It's one of my favorite foods ever.''
Kat spent two hours on the sandwich tattoo and used a lot of yellow ink to convey cheesiness. Diana, 54, had stoically endured, tapping only her right foot. Cameramen had observed her from every angle and distance and told her to stand in front of the mirror when it was done, with stage directions: 'Kind of like, `Oh my God, I can't believe I'm getting so much attention!' ''
Now out on the sidewalk the casino spokesman bared his soul. ''I am a man of faith,'' Jon Wolf said and revealed himself to be also a man of canny sense: Whether this sandwich is a message from God or just nicely toasted was not for him to decide, he said. ``My job as official spokesman of this sandwich is to let you make that choice.''
And the history of this possibly sacred snack? The sandwich came into being in Diana's father's frying pan at 8:30 one morning 11 years ago. Almost immediately it sustained a small bite to its bottom right corner from Diana, before she realized she was possibly nibbling on the mother of Christ and screamed, ``Oh my God!''
The sandwich came at a difficult time for Diana and her husband, Greg, who'd learned that he had emphysema, a herniated disc and a degenerating spine. They kept it in the kitchen, on a shelf with some dishes.
''We got so close to her,'' Diana said. ``Every time there was a problem we'd go in and pray to her.''
Mysterious power seemed to circulate around the sandwich. Diana believes it won her $23,000 at the casino and kept Greg healthier than he would have otherwise been. Good fortune continued after the sandwich was sold, perhaps magnified by the publicity.
It got them free trips to eating contests around the country, courtesy of a marketing scheme from Gol denPalace.com, the sandwich's new owner; the latest scheme, involving a museum with objects such as William Shatner's kidney stone, Cardinal Ratzinger's car before he became pope and a painted cow, promises even more free travel.
It got them backstage at a Hall and Oates concert on New Year's Eve last year, and both Hall and Oates turned out to be great guys. ''We know you, you're the woman with the grilled cheese sandwich,'' Hall said, or something to that effect.
Strangers spot Diana on the street and line up before her when she makes public appearances. ''People just know who I am,'' she said. ``They want me to touch them or pray with them. They think because she came to me, that I have this gift. Like this lady in a wheelchair -- this was at Publix -- she wanted me to touch her knees. It gives people a little hope. I guess in this time we need a little hope.''
Getting the sandwich tattooed on her breast would keep it close to her heart, she said. And what better way to spread the joy than putting it on television and broadcasting for a national audience?
