OREGON, OH (WTOL) - Kirsten Rains got the surprise of her life on Halloween.
She went from thinking she was getting fired from Luckie's Barn and Grill in Oregon, OH, to having what she says was the best day of her life.
"I see him standing there and my mind just went blank, I couldn't believe that he was actually here like so overwhelmed," Rains said.
Country singer Granger Smith spent hours calling his fans who had bought his new album this week after it came out on Friday. During his phone call with Kirsten, she told him she couldn't come to his event in Akron because of work.
After she got off the next day, she got called back in by the general manager. The manager told her she had to come into work immediately.
She thought she was getting fired for calling off a couple days before. She left her parents' house hysterical and calmed down by listening to Granger Smith's music in her car on the way to Luckie's.
What happened next, she says she did not believe.
"I didn't I really didn't. Until he hugged me. I was like, 'Oh my gosh! This is actually happening. Like Granger Smith is standing here in front of me. I talked to you yesterday," Rains said.
Smith drove two hours from Akron. When he got to Luckie's, Rains was not there so the staff had to ask Rains to come back.
"So I am waiting for her phone call," said Rains's older sister Malori McCloskey. "And she calls me and she is freaking out, and I could not understand a word she is saying. And she says, 'Granger just came to see me at work!' And I am like, 'What are you talking about?"
Kirsten says it was the best day of her life, and if it's possible, makes her even more of a fan.
"To see her face, to see that reaction, there is not a lot of times in music when you get to know for sure that you're doing something right," Smith said. "Her face told me that we are doing something right."
"People that my sister knows that don't even like country music, family, our parents don't listen to Granger Smith, they have no idea know who he is," McCloskey said. "Now they're going out and buying his albums because the impact he made on my little sister."
Rains says after Smith left, she bought backstage passes to his show in December so she can properly thank him.
