Walking in the Valley A bi-weekly column, featuring one Christian's (a)musings on life's journey by Barbara Dahlgren

The Trip from Hell (Part Two) – Thank God You Prayed Column for the weeks of September 1-15, 2008

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My seventy-eight year old Aunt Dee, her daughter Rose, and Rose’s seven year-old daughter Heather were pretty exhausted by the time the United flight to St. Louis was aborted, the fire put out, and everyone climbed out of the plane. It was midnight before they were all bussed back to the Denver terminal. Everything was a bit chaotic.

Luggage and other belongings from the plane would be available to claim at 2 a.m. United arranged for passengers to stay at local hotels and reissued tickets to fly out the next day. By the time hotel vouchers, food vouchers, and cab vouchers were issued, it was around 2. Contents from the plane were placed on the ground outside the terminal and resembled a huge yard sale. Everyone walked around looking for their items.

Rose procured a wheel chair for Aunt Dee who could barely walk by now and managed to find all their stuff except for one bag full of Heather’s books and toys which was never recovered. In total they had three suitcases, a couple of large purse-like bags, and various plastic bags full of souvenirs. So now, according to the United Airline representatives, all they had to do was find a cab and get to their hotel, the Radisson. It all sounded so easy.

However, the Denver airport is multileveled and huge – not just big – huge. People had to walk and walk and walk and try to find their way outside to get a cab. There were no shuttle busses to take people to the hotels. Passengers were booked at different hotels so they couldn’t really help each other. It was 2 a.m. and everything at the airport was closed and deserted.

This is where I think United showed a certain amount of callousness and ineptitude. Dee was in a wheelchair with 3 suitcases piled on top of her looking like a mini leaning tower of Pisa, Rose was pushing the wheel chair, carrying everything else and tying to keep exhausted seven year-old Heather from collapsing. When she asked the United reps where they could get help to get to the cab the reps handed her a map of the airport and basically said, “You are on your own.”

The map was hard to understand. They walked and walked and walked and tried to maneuver everything on moving sidewalks. Feeling like they were in an episode of the Twilight Zone, they asked everyone they met how to find the cabs. They were sent this way and that way. A punk rock looking teenager Rose recognized from their flight was skateboarding by and offered to help carry some of the bags. Finally they met a security guard who told them to take the underground subway to another part of the airport. He told them where to board and get off, and there would be an elevator in front of them to take them to the cabs.

The subway felt like a fast carnival ride and jerked them here and there (especially Dee until they learned how to lock the wheel chair), but at least they were sitting down. When they got off, the elevator was there just like the security guard said. They took it up to cab level and walked out into the night air. But since it was the middle of the night, there were no cabs.

The skate boarder said his hotel was in a different direction than theirs. They thanked him for his help as he skated off into the night. Not only were there no cabs, there were no people. By now they were at their breaking point. They went back into the airport and Rose hollered, “Help! Help!” This got a janitor’s attention who said, “Man, I don’t know what to tell you.” Then he added, “But I know there are some security guards down this long corridor to the right.”

Dee and Heather waited with all their belongings while Rose dragged herself down the hallway. She found the security guards and told them about her seventy-eight year-old mother in a wheel chair and her seven year-old daughter and that she just had to get a cab. They said, “We’re sorry. We’re security guards and we don’t do that.”

Then Rose went ballistic. Hell hath no fury like an exhausted Missouri woman whose patience has been tested way beyond normal limits. She said, “I don’t care what you do or don’t do. You had better get me some help right now. Either you get us some help to get out of this airport and to a cab or I’m going to make the biggest scene in the history of airport security. You call somebody. You call the mayor. You call the police. You get me some help.” Then she sat on the floor.

One of the guards said, “I think I know someone.” He dialed his cell phone, talked a bit, then said, “He’ll be here in three minutes.”

When three minutes passed Rose got up and said, “He’s not here. You better get someone over here.”

They called again and said, “He’s on his way.”

Soon a VIP arrived and said, “What can I do for you? What do you need?”

Rose told him her story. He said, “Where’s your mom?” not knowing whether or not to believe her and wondering what she was going to do next. But he walked with her to Dee and Heather. He called them a cab. He carried their bags. He loaded the taxi. He wished them well.

On the drive to the Radisson the taxi driver almost hit another car which triggered a road rage incident. The driver of the other vehicle kept edging very close to the taxi, gesturing violently, and apparently was not going to move on. Rose thought, “And will the good times never end?”

It was 4 a.m. before they got to the motel. After a few hours sleep they were up again to eat breakfast, check out, and catch a shuttle back to the airport. From here on everything was rather insignificant except that Heather got sick at breakfast and threw up near their table in the restaurant. Then she threw up on the floor in their room and near the shuttle before they boarded and at the airport security check-in station where a helpful employee asked, “Do you need an ambulance?” Rose said, “No! But I sure could have used one last night!”

Oh yes! Let’s not forget the highlight of the trip – when Rose asked the United reps about perhaps getting some free tickets for their trouble they were told, “Sorry, but you don’t qualify for free tickets.” It’s just as well. Why would they ever want to fly on United again?

Rose called me early Monday morning and relayed the whole story in detail. She said, “By the way, thanks so much for praying for our safe journey and protection.”

I said, “No problem! Can you imagine how bad it would have been if I hadn’t prayed?”

Be sure to visit this page often to read the next edition of Walking in the Valley. You can write to the author at bdahlgren@wcgsouthbay.org.