Dear Reader,
Congratulations to the winners of the January Chocolate Chip Cookie Giveaway, Danielle M., Heather M., and Kelly P. Your cookies are going out on Monday, so you'll be dunking and munching soon.
Today our guest writer is Victoria Stuppy, one of 2021 Honorable Mentions from my Write a Dear Reader Contest. The quality of writing in the 2021 Write a DearReader Contest was outstanding. Thank you so much Victoria for sharing your story with us.
I'm not sure who first said travel is exciting and glamorous, but I'm certain they never traveled to the Pacific Rim and back to the U.S. in 10 days. Don't get me wrong, the trip to Hong Kong and onto Thailand was a wonderful experience. My husband and I knew we'd miss the exotic locale and wonderfully sweet people, but there is no place like home when it comes to sleeping in your own bed. And after our non-stop agenda, sleep was fast becoming a precious commodity. The almost four-hour flight back to Hong Kong was mercifully quick and it appeared we'd make our tight connection and be home in time for Mother's Day!
And here's where it all began to go terribly wrong.
Our next flight was delayed by over three hours until nearly one o'clock in the morning. Then four hours into our flight we were awakened by the pilot asking if there were any doctors on board for a medical emergency. About an hour later, the pilot announced that the medical situation had worsened and he would have to turn the plane around and land at Narita airport in Japan. What?! We were nearly halfway to L.A. Okay, perhaps not that close, but I was sleepy and a bit cranky.
Not much to do about the situation short of commandeering the plane and forcing the crew to land at LAX. On to Tokyo. Sadly, the woman was very ill and died just before landing in Japan. While the family had been prepared for weeks that she probably wouldn't make the flight due to congestive heart failure, we felt the shock of their loss and spent time in prayer for her soul and for her family.
Upon landing the plane was swarmed by officials and Japanese police. It appeared that landing a dead body in Tokyo is not something the Japanese Medical Examiner takes lightly and they were not accepting the corpse. So the flight staff had to make some highly unusual arrangements to allow us to fly off the island by encasing one of the passenger seats in numerous sheets of plastic secured with tape, covered the seat with blankets and then with the assistance of four flight attendants, quietly escorted the body back to the seat.
Almost no one on board knew what had transpired save for those of us closest and so as not to alarm all of the passengers, the flight attendants seated the woman in her seat, tucked a blanket up to her chin, balanced her face against a pillow, buckled up her safety belt and then put on the finishing touch--they placed her reading glasses on her face! We were flying this poor woman to the States and we were spending the next eleven hours with a dead body three seats in front of our tray table.
We considered disembarking in Japan, but assumed we wouldn't think anything more about it until the flight attendant came around with the hot moist towels prior to our meal. Imagine our surprise when she stopped at the deceased woman's seat, removed the woman's eyeglasses, wiped her face and then replaced the glasses.
About six hours into the flight, I awoke and I still wonder to this day, did I really see the attendant gently spritzing eucalyptus oil on the body or was I dreaming? The moist towel scene was repeated once again before we landed. It was truly an academy award winning performance by the flight crew.
In the end, it is a lesson for all of us. To the family, it didn't matter where death took place, it was important that life had been lived. And to the few of us that witnessed it, it only reminded us to live and love each and every day.
-- Victoria Stuppy
Honorable Mention, 2021 Write a DearReader Contest
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these titles deserves your attention:
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HAUNTED HOUSE by Heather Graham
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THE BAIT by C.W. Gortner and M.J. Rose
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
This month's Penguin Classics book is HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS, by Julia Alvarez, with a foreword by Elizabeth Acevedo. I have a copy of the book to share with a lucky reader, so start reading and enter for your chance to win.
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