384. Condolences

A few days before Catherine’s mom died, she was on a cross country flight and received unexpected love and care from the crew.

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Catherine:  I’m Catherine, and it’s going to be okay.  At the end of 2015, my daughter wanted me to come to Phoenix and spend Christmas with her and her new husband.

Okay.  I was in New Jersey because my mom, at 97, was clearly failing.  And I didn’t want to go, but  she insisted.  Mom had been ill for the past several months with congestive heart failure, and she had made it very clear to everyone she did not want to linger.  So we signed her up for home hospice, and we just kept going.

But now right at Christmastime, it was very close to the end.  I flew out. We had Christmas in Phoenix. I flew back to New Jersey, and as I was on that flight,  the steward came up to me and he said, Listen, everybody’s having a good time, but you’re not. Why?  And I said, My mom is dying and I’m trying to get there.

And he said,  I can bring you anything you want in a glass.  and I said, thank you.  I struck up a conversation with the man sitting next to me, and we talked about being older and having parents die.  I got off the flight in Newark, I got picked up, and I made it home, and she died six days later, and I was there.

After I had gotten home, I unpacked my bags, and there in my tote bag, was a card from Southwest Airlines.  The crew of the flight I was on had written me a condolence note.  And there was another card, a smaller one, from the man who had sat next to me.  And it was a condolence note.  It’s been almost eight years. I still have them and I always will.