Kelly and Fran Potis are the couple from Leonia, New Jersey, whose chance meeting in New York City with Sarah Ferguson, the former duchess of York, wound up being the winning combination in a contest sponsored by WPLJ.

The contest involved successfully persuading a celebrity to call the station on behalf of a worthy cause. Contestants would have a shot at winning $10,000, to donate to a favorite charity, as well as a new 2002 Ford Thunderbird.

The Potis's 13-month old son died of leukemia in April. When they heard about the contest, they set out to Manhattan in search of a celebrity. They bumped into Sarah Ferguson in Times Square.

Their story about their son's death and the former duchess's popularity among the station's listeners proved to be the winning combination. The couple donated the money and the car to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma, Wash., which specializes in pediatric oncology.

An article that appeared in The (Hackensack, NJ) Record reported that the couple was touched by Sarah Ferguson's willingness to be involved in their cause. "That shows what kind of heart she has," they said.

Anyone who has ever met Sarah Ferguson would come to the same conclusion.

During the tail end of a business trip to Kansas City I checked my e-mail one last time before leaving the hotel. Among the messages was one from Continental Airlines, notifying me that I had received a complimentary upgrade to first class.

Check-in was routine and everything appeared to be on schedule for another smooth departure, but we sat at the gate for several minutes longer than normal.

Suddenly there was a bustle of activity in the jet-way. Several "Men in Black," complete with the sunglasses, suspicious bulges under their suit jackets and that little squiggly coil of wire behind one ear, boarded the aircraft. Behind them was Sarah Ferguson.

She quickly took her seat across the aisle from me after apologizing for delaying our departure. Everyone recognized her and no one seemed to mind. One of her bodyguards sat behind me.

"What happened?" I asked. Out of breath and sweating, he loosened his tie and explained, "We got pulled over by the State Police for doing 90 mph on the interstate. We knew we were going to be late if we didn't hustle. When we flashed our IDs and he saw who we were, he let us go."

The former duchess of York was on a trip promoting Weight Watcher's, for whom she is a spokesperson. But on that day, less than a week after the shootings at Columbine High School, she had taken time from her busy schedule to make a side trip from Denver to Littleton, Colorado, to comfort grieving students and their families.

"It was awful," she told me later during the flight. "They were just children. Next to Diana's death, it was the most difficult thing I have ever gone through."

Later on a few of us joined the former duchess in a game of charades that she initiated.

Charades? Playing charades with a former member of the Royal British Family? What about all those rumors we've heard of the English being stiff and stuffy?

Sarah Ferguson, like Princess Diana, broke that mold. I found her to be genuinely compassionate with a fun-loving side to her. She truly is a woman with a sensitive heart. Maybe that's why she's the former duchess of York.

Or maybe it's simply that she's a lot like you and me: a person who only seems larger than life because our impressions about her have been formed based solely on what we've seen on television or read in a gossip tabloid. The writer of the Book of Proverbs warns about such things: "The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles."

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com. Visit our website at www.amyfound.org.