By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – With the extraordinary number of people that attend New Orleans Saints games throughout the year, it is pretty easy to run into a familiar face every now and then.

But imagine running across an old childhood friend who moved halfway across the world. That was the case for St. John Parish President Natalie Robottom at a late season Saints game during the team’s Super Bowl run last season.

Robottom and her husband Hernandez, whose family has held season tickets since the team’s inaugural year in 1967, were walking through a parking lot on the way into the Super Dome when Robottom said she heard a familiar voice behind her.

“We weren’t in an area where we knew many people, but all of a sudden someone yells out, ‘Ro, Ro, Ro,’ a nickname for my husband,” Robottom said.

Robottom said the familiar voice came from Giselle Auzenne, a childhood friend she has known since kindergarten. Auzenne and her husband Jerome, an employee of Phillips-Connoco, had been living in Russia, and the Robottoms hadn’t seen them in years.

“It was such an odd coincidence to meet up with them,” Robottom said. “Giselle said they too were longtime season ticket holders, and they try to come in from Russia for at least five games a season.”

The happenstance meeting became even more unique when the couples entered the Dome to get to their seats, and they discovered how close they were sitting.

“Their seats are two sections over from ours,” Robottom said. “We could stand up and see them right across the way. It’s strange to think we were sitting so close together for so long and not know it.”

Robottom said she and Giselle have been friends since their early school days at Our Lady of Lourdes, a small Catholic school in Robottom’s hometown of Abbeville. Both attended Abbeville High School, and both moved on together to the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

“We met our husbands in college, and that’s where we started to separate,” Robottom said. “She followed her husband in the oil industry, which involved numerous moves, but we stayed in touch. Never expected to meet them again this way.”

The Auzennes are avid Saints fans and buy all sorts of black and gold apparel, Robottom said. It’s a small piece of home they can take back with them.

“Russia is a long way to fly for a game, but they make the trip with no second thoughts,” Robottom said. “Giselle normally stays for days or weeks at a time while her husband flies back and forth. It was a good feeling for Hernandez and I to reconnect with someone we have known for so long.”