Mrs. Curtis' First Airplane Ride

I am a quiet airline traveler. About 8 out of every 10 times I fly, I fall asleep before we even lift off from the tarmac. So on Monday, as I was preparing to fly back from Oregon, I expected no less from myself-even though I was secretly hoping that I would stay awake long enough to finish up a book I had to read. I had no idea Mrs. Curtis would change all that.

Meet Mrs. Curtis

I had seen Mrs. Curtis get patted down by the TSA as she went through security. I watched as a customer service rep walked her to a seat to wait in the gate area. I walked past her as I gave the attendant my boarding pass. And then from the back of the plane, Mrs. Curtis appeared in the aisleway next to the empty seat beside me. She sat down.

She appeared fragile. And nervous. And I would soon learn why.

The First Time Ever

As I was saying, I am a quiet traveler. Even the 2 out of 10 times I do manage to stay awake, I rarely talk to anyone else-except if I'm traveling with someone I know. Somehow, I knew this trip was going to be different.

It started with the seatbelt. Mrs. Curtis didn't know how to make it work, so without saying a word, I helped strap her in properly. She apologized for not being able to do it, and then explained why: This was her first airplane trip. In her life. WOW! And she was almost 80 years old.

Why Mrs. Curtis Was on the Plane

Within minutes, she started to get weepy as she told me that her 51-year-old son had died on Sunday. He died from a type of throat cancer that was discovered just a couple of weeks earlier. It was really sad because she had just talked to him the night before and all was well. Now two days later, she was flying to Ontario, CA, to say goodbye a final time.

Mrs. Curtis then tells me that on Friday, three days earlier, she had taken her 47-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome, to a nursing care facility. Her daughter had begun to have epileptic seizures, so it was time to move her to round-the-clock care. Up until that Friday, Mrs. Curtis had been the care provider for her daughter for 47 years. And now she had to start letting go because her daughter's life was coming to a close.

And Mrs. Curtis was traveling alone because her husband had died a few years earlier.

Now Was Not the Time to Sleep or Read

Wow. I was still tripping over the fact that this was her first plane ride. I wanted it to be a good experience considering we were on a two-prop puddle jumper. But geez, that wasn't even the half of it. Okay, Tamara, take a deep breath. Just be you. And God, please help us both. Remember-I'm the quiet (read "non-social") one in this equation.

I will spare you the details of how the next 70 minutes literally flew by, but it was amazing. We shared stories, we grieved, we laughed and we remembered that God was always with us and would not give us more than we could handle. And before she knew it, we were flying past Mount Rainier into Seatac. She had forgotten that she was supposed to be nervous about flying. ;)

I Now Have a Pen Pal (Literally)

Mrs. Curtis asked me for my "name card" because she wanted to send me a card once she returned home. And she wanted me to write her back. I believe I have a new friend. As we parted ways, she got weepy again because she didn't want our time together to end. She thanked me for a most delightful time. I thanked her.

God blessed each of us well that day.

Comments

[Kendall]

Tears nearly welled up for me reading this post. I recall my pastor telling the story of how he handles whether he wants to talk to someone on the plane. When people asked him, "what do you do for a living?" If he wanted to talk, he would answer, "I sell fire insurance." When he didn't want to talk, he'd say, "I'm a Christian Evangelist." Don't know why I thought of that...

[Angela]

Tamara, thanks for sharing this story. It's a great example of how God asks us to "be available". I think that some of my best God experiences are the times I make myself available rather than push for my own agenda. :)

[Tamara]

Kendall and Angela, thank you for your comments. I am still waiting to receive the note card from Mrs. Curtis in the mail. I know it will come.