This Too Shall Pass
What do a World Series championship, a hurricane, a death in the family and a missed flight all have in common? The answer came to me while sitting on the bed in a not so nice motel near the Charlotte airport.
I was in that hotel room because I missed my connecting flight when the baggage handlers opted to spend their time chatting for more than 20 minutes rather than unloading the baggage that the other passengers and I had gate checked. My bag was one of the first ones off. I grabbed it and sprinted to my gate. As I approached the gate I could see my plane through the window. I made it – the plane was still there. The gate agent informed me that while the plane was still there my seat was not. Since I did not get to the gate 10 minutes before departure, the airline gave my seat away.
It had been a good week during which I had the opportunity to work with 100 amazing sales professionals and yet I was ready to get home and sleep in my own bed. Alas, that wasn’t going to be the case. Rather than boarding the plane, I made my way outside the airport and eventually boarded a shuttle van to the motel where the airline put me and several other passengers who had been on my originating flight and who had missed their connections for the same reason I did. I travel frequently for business and pleasure and I have a lot of experience missing connecting flights due to weather, mechanical issues and flight crew delays. This delay, however, was not the result of any of those legitimate and understandable delays; this delay was simply the result of a lack of urgency on the part of baggage handlers. I do not think they did it maliciously and I doubt they thought about what impact their lack of diligence in unloading the bags from this plane would have but their mistake caused me and several other passengers to miss our respective connecting flights. Given that it was 10 pm, there were limited flights going out so we were stuck in Charlotte for the night. I lived just outside of Charlotte for 10 years and it’s a beautiful place but the other passengers and I just wanted to get to our respective homes that night. I thought about calling some of my local friends but since it was getting late and knowing that I had to be back at the airport at 5 am, I opted to stay at the airport motel the airline offered.
As I opened the door to the motel room I was assigned, I immediately felt uneasy. It was the type of place where all doors open to the parking lot. In addition to the door, there was a big window beside the door. Note to self: stop watching crime shows.
I turned on the TV to muffle the outside noise and the show that appeared on the screen was about a serial killer. I laughed nervously and quickly changed the channel. I was tired, frustrated and I knew I only had a few hours to sleep before I would need to be back on the shuttle to the airport for an early morning flight and yet I couldn’t sleep. I began to reflect on all that happened during the previous month of my life.
We had experienced the first big hurricane to hit the South Carolina coast since my husband and I bought our dream home one block from the beach. We love our home. It sits on a lot that has mature oak trees that are beautiful and we have with an ocean view and most importantly it is filled with love. When we bought the house we agreed that if a major storm were threatening we would evacuate. So when Hurricane Matthew made its way toward the SC coast we knew we would evacuate but I was caught off guard by how “triggered” I became. We left two days before the storm arrived and when we left it was still beautiful and sunny. We were no longer in danger of the storm and yet I was riddled with fear. My last encounter with Mother Nature left a strong impression. Six years earlier lightning struck our home (a different home) and started a fire that destroyed it. I was home at the time of the lightning strike and even now I struggle during storms – apparently my fear is not limited to lightning storms but also includes hurricanes.
The day after we returned home after the hurricane my 81-year-old father-in-law Harry called and told us he was being taken to the hospital. He lived in Melbourne, Florida and was in a rehab recovering from the toll chemo and radiation had taken on his body. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer six months earlier. Although we lived in different states, my husband and I spent a lot of time with him during those six months - we laughed, we cried and we watched a lot of baseball. Both Harry and I are big Chicago Cubs fans and even as his health deteriorated he found joy in watching the Cubs win the National League pennant and head to the World Series for the first time in 108 years. And my husband and I treasured the opportunity to watch the games with him.
The morning of the first game of the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians the doctor told my husband and me that it was just a matter of time…. My husband hopefully asked the doctor, “Maybe he’ll get to see the Cubs win the World Series?” The doctor responded, “Maybe a couple of games” and that’s just how much time he had. We stayed with him around the clock and watched the game that night – Cleveland shut out the Cubs and won the game 6-0. The next day we asked Harry if he thought Chicago could bounce back. He said, “Absolutely! You have to think positively.” That night Chicago won the game tying the series at 1-1. Harry gave my husband/his son a fist bump and reminded us to think positively. After several days of not sleeping at all, Harry slept that night. The next morning he passed away.
The day after the funeral we packed up and made the drive from Florida to our home in South Carolina. We got home 30 minutes before the World Series game that night. By then the Cubs were down 3-2 in the series. The game that night was being played in Cleveland. If Cleveland won, the World Series would be over. They would be the champions and, although the Cubs would have made it back to the World Series after 108 years, they still would not have won it.
I desperately wanted the Cubs to win. After law school I moved to Chicago and I lived one block from Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, for nine years. I wanted them to win for my friends in Chicago, for Harry and for Cubs fans everywhere. We put Harry’s hat by the TV and as we watched the game we thought of him.
We reminded ourselves of his words:
“You have to think positively!”
It seemed as if our positive thinking was going to pay off. Chicago won that night, which meant whoever won the next game - game 7, which would be played on the following night, would be the World Series champions.
The next night we continued to think positively and again it seemed to be working.
The Cubs were up by three runs going into the bottom of the eighth inning but Cleveland must have had their own groups of fans thinking positively as they tied the ballgame in the eighth inning. Neither team scored in the ninth inning, which meant not only had the series gone to seven games it was now going to extra innings. Miraculously the Cubs went on to win the game and the World Series. As I watched the TV footage of my old neighborhood exploding with euphoria I thought of how much I enjoyed living there, I thought of my friends who love the Cubs and I thought of Harry and I could hear him saying, “I told you that you have to think positively.”
That was two weeks before I found myself sitting on the bed in the motel near the Charlotte airport. As I reflected on my missed flight and all that happened during the previous month, I thought:
This too shall pass.
As we traveled inland after evacuating our home, my fear eventually passed; and a few days later the hurricane also passed as it headed out to sea. Fortunately, we were spared any real damage from the hurricane.
While we’ll never fully get over the sadness of losing my father-in-law, we carry him in our hearts as we move forward. One month after his death the grief that we felt at the time of his death hasn’t fully passed but our memories of the good times we shared have eased the pain we feel.
While I will always revel in the memory of the joy I felt when the Cubs won the World Series, I know that before long another baseball season will start. Even if the Cubs are able to replicate their last World Series experience when they won in back to back years – 1907 and 1908 – the time will come when another team will win the World Series and at that time the Cubs will no longer be the current World Series champions.
As for my time in the not so nice motel, that too passed. I was in that room for less than six hours. Instead of getting home at 11 pm and sleeping in my own bed, I arrived home at 9 am the next morning. While I was tired and frustrated, those feelings also passed after a good night’s sleep in my own bed.
Each day consists of 1,440 minutes. Don’t waste your time stressing over things that will come and go. Recognize that what you experience – the good and the not so good – will pass. Embrace the good experiences and cherish them - knowing they will not last forever. Endure the not so good experiences and draw hope in knowing that they too will pass.
- Lisa Johnson
