My husband, Wally, and I had been sitting in the Pittsburgh airport for the last few hours, sad and overwhelmed. Wally\u2019s dad had died unexpectedly of heart failure. We were trying to get from our home in Richmond to Los Angeles as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
Wally\u2019s sister, his only sibling, was waiting for us, and Wally, as the executor of the estate, needed to take care of some legal matters right away. \u201cI hope our flight leaves on time,\u201d Wally said now, running his hands through his hair.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything will be okay,\u201d I said gently. Just then an announcement came over the intercom. Our flight had been cancelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those of you still looking to go to Los Angeles,\u201d the announcer continued, \u201cthere is Flight 466 leaving out of Gate 3A in twenty minutes. They will take passengers on a first-come, first-served basis…\u201d<\/p>\n
All at once there was a stampede of people running through the airport trying to be one of the few to make it on that flight. \u201cI\u2019ll stay with the bags,\u201d Wally said. \u201cHurry and see if you can get us seats.\u201d<\/p>\n
I ran as fast as I could, but still there were at least 20 people in line in front of me. Lord, please get us on this plane,<\/em> I prayed, afraid I was too late. When I finally reached the agent, my fears were confirmed. The flight was full. \u201cWhen is the next one?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cAt five this afternoon,\u201d he said, \u201cbut that\u2019s fully booked too.\u201d There were no more flights until the next day.<\/p>\n \u201cMy father-in-law just died,\u201d I stammered, \u201cand we need to be with my sister-in-law as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to be able to help,\u201d the agent, \u201cbut everything\u2019s booked. Let me take your name and I\u2019ll call you if anyone cancels.\u201d I gave him our tickets and he typed our information into the computer. Then he looked up. \u201cBut Mrs. Hutchinson,\u201d he said, \u201cyou\u2019re already scheduled on this flight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My husband, Wally, and I had been sitting in the Pittsburgh airport for the last few hours, sad and overwhelmed. Wally\u2019s dad had died unexpectedly of heart failure. We were trying to get from our home in Richmond to Los Angeles as quickly as possible. Wally\u2019s sister, his only sibling, was waiting for us, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[53,158,153],"ppma_author":[2438],"class_list":["post-13964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-angels","tag-dream","tag-heavenly-angels","tag-travel"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n