VanCamp added that she “loved meeting Stacey. I love her energy and she has such a great sense of humor. It was an honor to meet her and to be able to play her.”
Bess echoed the enthusiasm, saying that “Emily Van Camp was the perfect match for me. She understood me completely.”
Bess, a Latter Day Saints member and mother of six, said that her education by nuns in England when she was a child helped instill a love for learning, and reinforced the importance of faith in her life.
“When I was 4 years old I lived in Leeds, England,” she recalled. “The American children, whose parents worked for the government, were driven to a private Catholic school. I was fortunate to be there for a few years until we came back to the states.
“My favorite memories were of the nuns leading us into one of my favorite songs, 'Go tell it on the Mountain,'” she said. “Later In life I remember younger siblings who did not go to the private Catholic school heard me singing this beloved song and asked, 'Where in the world did you learn that song?' I told them that I have fond memories of the nuns leading us into each day with The Lords Prayer and 'Go tell it on the Mountain.”
“I can't imagine a better way to start a day than to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is our savior,” Bess said.
On her tireless work in service to homeless children, Bess said “I have always felt like there was a plan for me. My experiences both difficult and amazing prepared me to rub shoulders with these people.”
“I knew what fear was. I knew what humiliation felt like, and I also knew that I was a child of God,” she said.
“It was that knowledge that helped me plow through the difficult and use the lessons learned to bless the lives of others. I guess you could say that all of my story both the good and bad are blessings that I was able to draw on when faced with whether I should step out of my comfort zone and serve or stand back,” Bess added.
“I chose to step up in behalf of a child.”
Marianne is a journalist with a background in writing and Catholic theology. When not elaborating on the cinematic arts, she enjoys spending time with people, reading thick books and traveling anywhere and everywhere.