Plane Ride

I spend a good amount of time on airplanes going back and forth to school and summer jobs. Usually, I put in headphones and zone out, but sometimes I don't and interesting things happen. A couple months ago, I was flying back to New Haven from a job interview. I boarded the plane and saw that an old man was sitting in my seat by the window. I told him I wouldn't mind taking the next seat over if that was the one he was assigned. He got all flustered, apologized over and over, and then told me this was the first time he had been on an airplane. He looked super nervous, so I told him I had made this same flight a hundred times and it had always been an easy ride. I asked him what was bringing him to New Haven. He said, "I have to go pick up my son... to bring him back to Arlington to bury him." And then he broke down in tears. And then I started crying even harder than this old man. And then we were both sitting in the back of this tiny plane crying together.

For the rest of the flight he told me story after story about his sons, his grandsons, his fishing trips. He told me that when he was young, he started a road trip around the country. He only made it from southern California to Texas, where he met the prettiest girl he had ever seen, married her, and has never left since. He showed me pictures of land in Texas where he has llamas that his late wife "just had to have." He gushed about his grandsons and how much he loved the summer when they came to camp with him. And when the plane landed, he gave me his card and said that if I was ever in San Antonio, he would take me out to the best steak dinner I've ever had. He also told me I should find a husband and bring him too.

via here