'The Lucky One': Taylor Swift Crowns Oak Forest Girl, 11, With Her Hat

OAK FOREST, IL — That night was flawless, they'll never let it go. An Oak Forest pre-teen was enchanted to meet her idol Taylor Swift—and be handed the "22" hat gifted to one special Swiftie at each show.

High hopes—and a quick-clicking finger—paid off for Tina Avila, who anxiously kept refreshing ticket resale listings the day of Swift's first Eras show at Soldier Field. With just hours until show time, suddenly there they were: two floor seats. One for her, one for her devoted, Swiftie daughter Isabella.

"I jumped on it," Avila said, of the tickets that were just a few hundred dollars more than the $900, nosebleed seats her husband had previously been eyeing.

She OK'ed the purchase with her husband before going ahead with it, but the nerves didn't end there. It was her first time dealing with a resale site, she said, and she worried something would go wrong.

But everything was perfect. Magical, even, Avila said.

They kept the tickets a secret from Isabella, leading her to believe they were just going to gather with other fans outside the stadium, swapping friendship bracelets, maybe listening from afar.

Then she revealed that they had gotten tickets, but that their seats were far from the stage. As they walked inside, Isabella saw the signs directing them to the floor section, and grew suspicious, Avila laughed.

"She thought we were going the wrong way," Avila said, and then it clicked.

"'MOM,' Avila recalls her saying, 'do we have FLOOR SEATS?!'"

The night would be unforgettable for the pair. Isabella met Taylor Swift's mother Andrea, exchanging friendship bracelets with her. Andrea Swift hugged Isabella, and Scott Swift handed her a guitar pick, before the mother and daughter went back to their section to enjoy the show. A bit later, Avila received a tap on the shoulder from a tour representative, and the two were told to follow her. Isabella was pulled to the front of the stage, where she leaned forward, excitedly singing along with "22" and dancing.

Then Swift strode toward her, and Avila's emotions overcame her. The mother can be heard happily shrieking as Swift crowns Isabella with the token fedora.

"She is so pretty, and she smelled like cherries," the starstruck Isabella told Patch Thursday, of her encounter with Swift. "She's just so pretty, and she's really kind. There's so many things to describe her in such positive ways."

Isabella said she's loved Swift since the 1989 album, which came out when she was just 4 years old. Her favorite album, and in this case, "era" at the show is Reputation. Isabella was thrilled when Swift played her favorite song "Cardigan," too, though it came late in the night.

Avila is flustered by her own emotions caught in real-time in her cell phone video, but the moment took her by such surprise, and she felt such gratitude to be able to share it with her daughter.

"It was everything to me," Avila said, about being able to give her daughter that experience. " My husband and I, we don't come from money. I did not pay what people think for the tickets, and what people are putting out there.

"It was everything to me. We’ve worked our whole lives, from teenagers to build our life up, be able to give our kids a better life. We work hard to do that, together.

"... as a child, I didn't have those experiences. I wasn't able to have those moments. … There was nothing my parents could afford to this magnitude. Being able to do that for her, it's everything. To have all those special moments, with those unexpected tickets, I can't really even put it into words, it was just magical."

The magic wasn't lost on Isabella; "Mama Swift" came to hug her after she was given the hat, telling Isabella, "I'm so proud of you."

"It was just such an amazing moment," she said. "I’ve always loved Taylor as a person, and as a singer. It was just an amazing moment. I was just in the moment."

Word of her encounter with the mega-star got back to her classmates before she even had a chance to tell them, Isabella said. Many saw her TikTok videos, or her mother's Facebook posts.

"It was so awesome," she said, of everyone sharing in her story. "I got a little taste of fame."

Avila said the signed hat—along with friendship bracelets, confetti, light-up bracelets and other mementos from the show—will be preserved in a shadow box. Swift also has a token from the night—a friendship bracelet crafted by Isabella that reads, 'T-Swizzle.'

" I just want to save these memories for my daughter, have these moments saved," Avila said, "with all those mementos. If she ever forgets, she's going to have everything she needs to remember."

Both mother and daughter remarked on the night, and Swift.

"She's literally flawless in person," they said.

"No concert will ever top this," Isabella said. "Taylor's my favorite artist, there's no way anyone can top that."