I went to Copper, Colorado, for Christmas with my family. I fell down on a snowboard and got up so many times that I think I can safely stay away from working out for a while. We had a layover on the way back to Los Angeles in Salt Lake City, Utah.
It was snowing when my family got on the plane in Salt Lake City. We sat on the tarmac for at least an hour waiting to take off and then waiting for the plane to be deiced. The older gentlemen sitting on the aisle in my row was boring the fancy lady from Laguna Beach next to me with his stories about sailing, latitude, longitude and about six different wars.
The plane began to take off, getting faster and faster. Just as we were about to pull up into orbit a stewardess ran down the aisle with an oxygen tank. Everyone around me looked over their right shoulders to see what was a matter.
“That’s my Dad,” I said out loud.
“You lost your hat? Well, just look for it later,” said the older gentleman.
“No, that’s his father,” said the fancy lady (Her name I latter found out was Annette).
My Dad was hunched over his seat, eyes glazed over and white as a ghost. My Mom was sitting next to him patting his face and trying to get him to wake up. The stewardess asked if there was a doctor on the plane and two people rushed over to my Dad’s seat.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to be going back to the terminal because of a medical emergency,” said the captain over the loud speaker.
My eyes were transfixed on my dad’s bobbling head sitting in his seat.
“Wait, that’s your Dad?” said a man in the row behind me.
“Yes, that’s his father,” said the fancy lady.
The man scrunched up his face and shook his head; Not the most reassuring of travel companions. The fancy lady grabbed my right hand and wouldn’t let go until my Dad starting blinking his eyes again.
Dad didn’t want the rest of us to get off the plane with him. We all disobeyed. There wasn’t enough room in the ambulance so my sister and her husband and I followed one of the paramedics to his car on the tarmac. The snow crunched under our feet as we made our way to the paramedic’s truck.
Salt Lake City, at least the Salt Lake City that we saw, was nothing but a white haze of snow.
My Dad turned out to be fine, well as fine as you can be after fainting and blacking out on a plane on a late night flight. I’m tired, sick of air travel, jet lagged and happy 2010 is here.
Hope John is doing fine now. What a scare that had to be.
Please send me a note as soon as you know more.
Love to all of you.