A Flight (and Middle of the Night) to Remember

It was my first time flying by myself. I thought for sure I would be late for boarding, lose my luggage, or miss the flight altogether, so it was a relief to be on the plane. Some of these nerves were probably excitement in anticipation for the Camino, but I was still prepared to ask a flight attendant for a bag. As I was searching for my seat,  a white tuft of fur caught my eye and led me to an old woman wearing a giant white fur hat (in May might I remind you). I got farther down the aisle and realized I would be sitting by her. I was so pleased. Another older woman was sitting in the aisle seat, and as I tried my best to politely climb over her into the middle seat, white-fur woman was giving me a glare only someone over seventy-five can get away with (I think she was upset she had to move her winter coat out of the seat). When I sat down, the woman on my left (aisle seat) greeted me with a smile and the woman on my right greeted her chest with a snore. I was a little bit disappointed that I wasn’t interacting with this woman, but was more than happy to talk to my other seat partner. She pointed to my cell phone, so I gave it to her and she handed it back to me and pulled out a list of handwritten phone numbers, and pointed at one. Once she finished her phone call in what I think was Hindi, she pulled out some green beads and began to pray over them. My anxiety was calmed a bit by this, knowing that 1) someone else was just as nervous as I was, and 2) there was a chance of divine intervention if anything with the plane went wrong. I tried to break the ice with the other woman, and obviously, I had to mention the hat. “I like your hat!” was my opening line. She seemed to appreciate it, because she laughed and said thank you in an accent I couldn’t quite place. A few minutes later, a dog on the plane started yapping, and she looked at me very confused and quietly said “Dog? Little dog?” in what was quite definitely a Russian accent.

As the drink cart pulled up to us, both women were fast asleep, heads tucked into chests. They stirred with a little nudge, and when the flight attendant asked what they would like to drink, I quickly realized that I would serve as a pseudo-translator for my new friends, Lisa, from India, and Nellie, from Russia. I helped them decide on drinks and snacks while the attendant kept an irritated smile. Then, we talked the whole flight, trading airplane pretzels for cookies, sharing pictures of our family, talking about our hometowns. I asked Nellie where she was currently living, and she said “Chicago… no, New York. I forget sometimes.” One of the first things she said when I told her I was from Indiana was that Oprah was from Indiana. I’m not sure if that is actually true, but apparently Oprah crosses all borders of age and nationality.

Once the plane landed, Nellie said something to me about a telephone, so I figured she wanted to use my phone as well. Although, to my surprise, she was asking for my phone number. I wrote it down for her, and she pressed the numbers into her flip phone. I wasn’t really sure what she wanted my number for, but it couldn’t hurt to give it to her. As Lisa was leaving our seats, she put her hand on mine and said “Angel, angel! God bless you!” I was so happy to have met them both I was could have cried. Nellie was in a wheelchair, and I had a nine-hour layover to kill, so I pushed her around the airport until we found her grandson. A few days later, fast asleep in Spain I got a call, so I answered. A feeble “Hello?” followed by my “Hi, who is this?” and I realized it was Nellie when she said “Have you forgotten me already?” She was very apologetic when she realized she had called me at three in the morning, but I was just happy to hear from her. Not even out of the country yet, my Camino journey had already started with friends I would remember for a lifetime.