The price was right

Looking back on the journey to appear on "The Price is Right" Mother's Day episode, Ulla Lack said it was pure adrenaline that saw her through. The Coeur d'Alene woman described meeting her son in the Los Angeles airport late at night, and grabbing only a few hours rest before rousing at 2:30 a.m. to find the TV studio.

Looking back on the journey to appear on "The Price is Right" Mother's Day episode, Ulla Lack said it was pure adrenaline that saw her through.

The Coeur d'Alene woman described meeting her son in the Los Angeles airport late at night, and grabbing only a few hours rest before rousing at 2:30 a.m. to find the TV studio.

They spent several hours waiting in line after line, watching rats scramble up and down the studio wall as they chatted with the audience "pros," who came prepared with lawn chairs and reading lamps.

All for a 45-minute taping, which peaked with she and her son, Daniel, 29, being called as a team.

"I just thought we never would be called. One woman had been there 14 times and never been called down," the 58-year-old said. "My son kept saying, 'We're going to be next, we're going to be next!' and I was like, 'Oh yeah, sure.'"

When the big moment came, she didn't have to fake her jubilation, she said.

What happened in the next dizzying moments included kindly exchanges with host Drew Carey, and winning nearly $2,000 in designer accessories. Most important, she said, she had a life experience with her youngest son from Illinois, who she only sees three times a year.

"It's fun sometimes to do something wild and crazy in your life you would never do," Ulla said. "It's good to have something to tell your grandchildren later and say, 'Hey, I went to this,' instead of sitting at home on the couch."

It was an experience that, in a way, her entire life had been leading up to.

"The Price is Right" has a long history with her, she said, as it played a role in her family's assimilation after immigrating to the U.S. from Sweden in the 1950s.

"My dad was having a hard time tolerating the winters in Sweden. He'd get really sick," Ulla remembered. "He always said there were two seasons in Sweden: A green winter and a white winter."

A tailor, her father arranged for a job working at a tailor shop in Winfield, Kan. To pay for passage for themselves and their five children, her parents sold all their belongings except for what they could stuff in a few trunks.

"We came in the lower part of the boat, like in the Titanic," Ulla said with a laugh, adding that she was only 2 at the time. "We got to New York, and then we traveled two days on train to Winfield."

Their arrival landed headlines in the local paper - "The Swedes Come to Kansas."

As none of them could speak English, they relied on game shows as their tutors, she said.

"We learned English from watching television. We watched the old 'Price is Right' with Bill Cullen, and Bob Barker on 'Truth or Consequences,'" she said.

Her father always said that if the family had stayed in Sweden, his children would never have accomplished what they had, Ulla said.

Like Ulla becoming a nurse, or her brothers becoming manager of a department, a general surgeon, a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and an Army career man.

"My parents were so proud to fly an American flag," Ulla said.

Through it all, "The Price is Right" remained part of her parents' regular routine, she added.

"Before my parents passed away, my dad said, 'I like watching "The Price is Right" because everybody's happy on it,'" she said. "It has a kind of sentimental value to me because my parents enjoyed it and found a little happiness in their day seeing other people so happy."

Ulla continued the tradition, she added.

During her three sons' summer vacations, they would gather to watch Bob Barker, with Ulla prompting the kids to guess the prices.

"It was just an hour of family game time," she said. "I think anything you and your family can do together, even something just like a silly game show on TV, it's still fond memories."

Ulla's son Daniel, who took the day off from his job as an engineer to meet his mother for the April 7 taping, said he was willing to do anything short of breaking the law to get them on stage.

"I knew it was something that meant a lot to her, and it felt good just to be on there and have the full experience," Daniel said. "It's kind of a priceless feeling, getting off the stage and knowing you've just been on TV. Seeing the smile on her face of disbelief, that's not something you can buy."

The Mother's Day episode will air on Friday, May 7.

Ulla will definitely be watching, she said.

"It's just a once-in-a-lifetime thing," she said. "When my son said he'd join me, it gave me the courage to actually do it."