I am that lady in Seat 12B. Maybe even stuck in that middle seat of 27D.
I’m that lady you’re puzzled about as you’re trying to discreetly poke your travel partner. “Check out the woman over there,” you whisper. “She’s crying her eyes out.”
Dear Reader, what is it about airplanes? Whatever it is, I’m a goner. Just say, “Boo,” and I’ll start crying.
Watching a movie that on the ground would bring a tiny tear to my eye inspires a flood of water works when I’m on a plane.
Recalling a simple, pleasant memory leaves me a mess.
My friend, Tricia, who is good at making me not me feel not entirely crazy, confessed one day that she is equally tear-challenged on airplanes, as well.
Now, when either one of us takes a trip, we text, “Safe travels!” along with that particular emoticon face with tears streaming down the cheeks, because we know what’s coming.
I find myself thinking about this particular condition as I fly back from a trip with my baby sister.
A few months ago she called me and said, “Come join me for a Sisters’ Trip in the French Alps after I wrap up a business meeting!”
There were only two things to say, “Mais oui!” (“Of course!”) and “Husband, could you please cash in some miles?”
Sister and I had a grand time. We hiked, we laughed, we shopped. We ate. We took care of no one but ourselves.
It was simply bliss.
As I fly home, I’m thinking about the lifetime gift that is my sister.
I remember our parents telling my brother and me they were going to have another baby.
I remember my brother hauling me in the backyard and threatening me to beat me up if I told any kid on the block that our mom was pregnant. He was 8, I was 7. The difference of that one crucial year meant he understood what our parents had done to create this situation and sure wasn’t going to spread news like that around the neighborhood.
I remember her being born, winning the bet with my brother that the baby would be a girl, as this was back in the day when you had to wait to find that out.
I remember creating slumber parties for her friends, driving her carpool, being her protector, so many of the things a tired older mother is happy to pass onto an older child.
And here we are a zillion years later, married, living in different countries, still able to giggle like we are kids.
Her world knows her as a big-time entertainment executive. I know her as my little sister.
I’m so proud. So, thankful, So — wait, I better head to the plane’s bathroom for some Kleenex. Either that, or ask to borrow the sleeve of the stranger sitting next to me.
Surely, it must be the air up here.
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