This past Thursday Lee and I flew out to Carlsbad, CA to get Mom ready for the journey home to New York, which occurred Saturday night. She is now back in New York, and seemed to make the journey OK. Some strange happenings on the way there got me thinking about Paul again.
Lee booked the flights for us. Since I was bringing mom home on the red-eye Saturday night, he booked a non stop for me from Newark, and a one way for her sitting next to me on the return trip. His fight didn't need to be non stop, and he would usually rather leave from Stewart or Albany for convenience sake. Here, now is a list of some rather amazing coincidences that followed:
--Lee's flight from Stewart ended up changing planes in Newark, onto the SAME FLIGHT I was on.
--I knew when we booked the separate flights that Lee was sitting a few rows away from me, but didn't remember exactly where. We were both stuck in middle seats too, as that was all that was left at booking time. I checked in online the night before, and quickly grabbed an aisle seat that wasn't available when we booked. It ended up being the seat NEXT TO LEE.
--The flight was full. They even announced that, so that people knew to conserve space in the overheads. When the plane finally finished boarding there was one empty seat from a no-show: THE WINDOW SEAT NEXT TO LEE.
Once again, I'm not usually much for spirits and the like, but I would like to believe that he was either there with us, or somehow made sure that we had a more comfortable ride than we would have. Thank you Paul, either way, and although I'm sure if you're capable of watching us you already know this: Mom is home, and safe with the rest of us. Say hi to dad, and could we manage an "accidental" first-class upgrade the next time we travel?
