Madeleine had a big adventure yesterday. She flew to Detroit all by herself to stay with her Auntie Pam and cousins Brandi and Briana.
As many of my gentle readers know, I am terrified to fly. I do it, but I am not happy to do it and I need several little pills with big effects to do it. It has been my goal to not let my fear influence Madeleine's perception of how safe flying actually is, so I have tried to hide my tremulousness as well as possible, especially with the help of a Xanax before and during our flights.
We got up very early to get to the airport in plenty of time (although with Chicago traffic, you rarely ever get anywhere in plenty of time) and Maddie was a little nervous. She was armed with Alisa, her Teddy bear, with whom she always travels. When we finally parked the car in the airport garage, I asked Madeleine which she preferred to carry: her little flight bag or her suitcase with the wheels. She said, "I want to pull the suitcase because it looks so grownup." I laughed because yes, she was acting so grownup, pulling along her suitcase on the way to her first solo flight, but at the same time, she was holding her little pink Teddy bear! There is a shift going on here and I am not embarrassed to point out the obvious symbolism: I clearly see that she is wanting to grow up, but at the same exact time, she is staying a little girl. And that is fine with me.
She did great. We sat around and waited until they began to board. Unaccompanied minors get to board first, so we walked to the door and she burst into tears. I gently put my hand under her chin and brought her face to mine. I smiled big, but my own tears were threatening to roll. I held them back and smiled.
As she was escorted down the hall to the plane, I peeked around the corner and watched her go. As I'd hoped, she didn't look back. A man told me I had done very well, he wouldn't have done that well. I gave him the so-so sign.
When the escort came back to the gate, I asked how Maddie was doing. She said that when she left her, she was in the cockpit eating popcorn with the pilots! My girl knows how to travel!
I looked out the window and they all waved to me; I knew everything would be just fine. And it was.
4 comments:
You are a very brave soul. I would have been banned from going to the airport.
Did I tell you you should try some dilaudid?....I guess I did. FYI, no matter how old you get it's always a balance between being grown-up and being a kid. My parents never told me that :)
I'm not sure if dilaudid's for me, but maybe sometimes faces where there are none wouldn't be a bad thing. A few years back we flew to Florida and I took a picture of Madeleine and the two pilots right outside the cockpit. For some crazy, freaky, weird reason Madeleine came out in the picture, but where the pilots were supposed to be was only blank and blue. I swear I almost got off the plane. We never figured out how that could have happened - Maddie was standing right in between the two men. Vampires?
Ok Alisa.. now it's your turn. Time to take up the challenge!
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