A Touching Display of Love

We were at the gate for our flight from DFW to LAX after attending my 60th high school reunion in Kansas City Mo.  The gate agent kept teasing us with calls to board and then coming back, apologizing and saying "it will be just five minutes."  Meanwhile MAA (a Major American Airline) was e-ing me, frantic with each new delay.  We watched the 5 minute segments fly backwards in time.

Finally we were herded to the gate and, as always, wheelchairs and families board first.  We had already noticed the guy in the really cool chair that can, at the touch of a button, hoist the sitter up, higher than anyone else is tall off to the side.  He was accompanied by a woman in a regular wheelchair and they had what looked like a coach with clipboard and i.d. on a lanyard.  to see to their needs.  Both were early 30s and the lad had a bit of a temper.  He had the chair set at skyline and after the second or third apologetic delay, he spun his rig away from the gate and took a rapid zip around the area.   The orderly stayed with the woman. NOTE:  Richie said that the man was solo with no one to help him and truth be told, he clearly didn't need any assistance and that the coach was with the woman and probably her husband.

When he returned, I noticed that he had lost both feet because dark blue stockings flapped below the hem of his jeans. I noticed because he used his remaining leg to flap them in irritation.  His right hand was a sort of melted fist.  She had no visible injuries until I spotted her left hand.  It had a perfectly symmetrical scar around the wrist and her "fingers" were toes.  She wore no bandage and had the use of that hand in a limited fashion.

Finally we were allowed to board and because I was in a wheelchair (used only at airports) I was among this group.  They went first and at the plane door, they were transferred to the regular airline skinny wheelchairs that fit a plane's narrow aisles.

This held up the line what with airport personnel, the orderly and the patients all arguing and moving around, but they were soon sorted and Richie and I bade farewell to my pusher and boarded.

They were put in First because they vanished. This aircraft has a boarding door behind First and they all turn left from the open door.  

It was an uneventful flight, we landed a la Captain Kangaroo, and then we taxied for quite a while until we found ourselves 'way down the runway at the solo gate where they pushed up a switchback-type ramp down to the runway and buses to take us in to Baggage Claim.  The bus accommodated their own wheelchairs by lowering the platform level with the ground and at the front of the bus, two sets of chairs flipped up into the wall to create an open space for the chairs.

But before this happened, I noticed out the window, the transfer they were making for him from the airline chair to his own. Floodlights provided what light there was and the bus headlights picked out more.  All around us jet engines screamed and whined and other motor traffic scooted along.   He sat, still in the other, and while waiting, he had reached out and was tenderly stroking the dangling socks with the air of someone greeting a much loved pet.  As it must have been to him - high above normal height, quick as a dart going where he wanted to go; relying on no one to push him … totally understandable.  That touched me so much that I couldn't not write about it.