Grammy took us up on our offer to come for Christmas. This summer, she booked herself a ticket and all was done.
I noticed last week in some email conversations that she had her departure day wrong. She thought she was leaving Friday, when the ticket said Thursday. No biggie, but a scramble to get things together.
She made it to the airport ok. Off she went into the wild blue yonder.
I arrived at the airport a few minutes early to get her. Something in my gut told me to look at her itinerary, I wanted to check the arrival time to see how much time I did have to wait.
Sitting in the car, I saw it, and my gut sank. It said Greenville, but it didn't say GSP. Grammy had flown to Greenville, NC and she didn't know it.
I quickly called my Dad. What else are you suppose to do. I had 15 minutes before she was suppose to land. He suggested calling the airport. I also tried calling her cell phone several times, but she was in flight, so I knew she wouldn't answer.
I started to panic. What is she suppose to do? She's 81. She's in a place that's not near anyone she knows. She's all alone.
I called the airport and got stuck in a mess of a answering service. I spoke with several people who couldn't help me, but directed me to a line that wasn't anything but a message to leave a message. I didn't want to leave a message, I wanted to speak with someone!
Finally, I got Grammy, and I broke the news. She didn't seem too upset. She spent the next hour and a half trying to get back to Charlotte so I could pick her up. She was having a hard time with the airline that booked her flight, getting anything changed. The Greenville, NC airport, was very helpful though. We still aren't certain exactly what she got charged or what happened, but I told her we would sort it out later.
I drove the 2 hours north to pick her up. I waited in the baggage area for a long time, pacing, panicking, till she called me and told me where she was. I tried not to run to her, but I walked pretty swiftly. I was so excited to see her. She looked so excited to see me.
We loaded up her luggage and headed 2 hours back.
We got home around 10pm. It took her 16 hours to get to me. Twice what it would have taken to drive.
We settled in for the night and I told her we would sort out her return trip the next day.
The next day, I called a travel agent friend for advice. She suggested calling the airline and begging. That didn't sound exciting to me at all. She said the most they could do it allow her to board at her connecting flight in Charlotte. I really didn't want to make the 4 hour trek again.
I looked up one way flights and found that they were pretty reasonable. So we booked it. The only problem was the only flight out on Friday was late and she didn't want to get back to Pittsburgh at midnight. She she agreed to stay one more day and go home Saturday. Done!
It was a very stressful event and she handled it with calm and coolness. Not once did she show signs of panic, or appear upset. It was a simple mistake, that none of us caught on to. My dad told me once"Shit Happens" You just get over it and move on. Its not the end of the world. I think he learned that from Grammy.
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