Layover Thoughts

Unusual things happen when flights are cancelled in a strange country and instead of an hour layover you are out looking for a place to live overnight and even longer. By the time the night was done, I had walked a few miles in rain and wind with some strangers I had met in the plane, chilled to the bone. One of whom lent me a jacket she had to spare but it was no match for the weather. 

Yet another had an apartment near my hotel and invited me over for dinner. I was grateful for the warm food after the ordeals of the day. We talked about our woes and how poorly the airline had managed the mess. My neighbor on the flight had not been able to find a hotel and was sent to a nearby military base to camp for the night. She appeared to be shaken by this turn of events but had no choice.  

As we waited to find out if we were going to stay one or more nights here, we also learned about each other's lives - places people had traveled to in years past, kids back home who may or may not be worried about them, people with no one back home that they needed to inform about their situation. 

Crisis accentuates the good and bad in our lives - for the woman in the fraying marriage, a day of escape and unaccountability, for the elderly couple with no schedule to follow in their retirement - an accidental vacation they don't really want but grudgingly accept, for the pharma exec on  a business trip a time to expense a whole new winter wardrobe to her company. As I walked around town alone, I felt grateful to have people in my life who awaited my return and those I may not see right away but were concerned for my safety.