Two men wheeled me through the massive Salt Lake City airport. I’ve gotten over my embarrassment of needing a wheelchair for long stints, and I simply talked with the men, finding out about their hopes and dreams. We had a few minutes, and I even bought them coffees. “If you want to travel together, do it!” I finally said after hearing the story of how they were such good friends in high school that they started working together. Yet, work, school, and responsibility aside, they wanted to travel together.
“We might travel…but after we finish college,” one said.
“Listen! I have stage four cancer. I thought I’d raise my kids and ‘see the world’ when they got older. I always wanted to visit Italy and Ireland! I wanted to see Canada and Mexico again…. But look at me. My oldest is an adult and my seventeen-year-old is close behind. Now that I’m 38–the age when I’d hoped to travel—I’m too sick to do almost anything. Go now, while you can. Tomorrow…is uncertain at best.”
“I understand,” the taller guy finally said. “But you’re traveling today? Where are you going?”
I laughed. “I told my parents that I missed them too much, so they bought me a ticket to go see them in Arizona! Just don’t tell my doctor!” I joked. “She’s paranoid about blood clots.”
We resumed our journey then—them pushing me through the airport and me watching as different people occasionally looked at me kindly, sadly, curiously, callously…. I even caught an elderly woman grimacing, as if nothing looked “wrong” with me.
Anyway, that airport is crazy because there’s a stretch where you have to walk for over a mile before reaching the terminals. When we finally arrived, I turned to the men. “Please go take that trip! Sooner rather than later.”
They laughed. “We just might. It was nice to meet you.”
“You too.”
They left soon after, and another representative, seeing the wheelchair, asked me to approach the customer service center. “Which flight?” she asked.
“7350”
“Can I see your ticket?”
I handed it over, and that’s when a Godwink happened.
To be continued 🤗
I always wanted to travel before I got old, and traveled some. But I never liked the idea of being a tourist, traveling to see all these places in the world. Staying in a place, getting to know the people, the culture, and so on, had more value to me. So I did that and have no regrets. I'm looking forward to the Godwink, a term I've never heard before. Your meetings with people, so well told by you, are always interesting, I believe because you care.
ReplyDeleteI need a wheelchair if I have to walk more then a few feet, looking forward to the next part
ReplyDelete