The Red-Eye

At three fifty-eight a.m. I was awakened by what sounded like my oldest son, Josh's voice saying "Hello."  That's all I heard.  But then I remembered that he and his family were on a "red-eye" flight right then, on their way back from Hawaii.  Was the plane okay?  Maybe it WAS him!  Instead of hello, maybe he was telling me good-by!  Maybe I needed to pray for that plane!

Should I get up and check online to see if a plane had crashed over the Pacific?  No, they wouldn't have information yet.  Would someone from the airline call us?  Would they know to call us?  All of Josh's family, Jerilyn, David and Emily, were on the plane.  Well, that was a comfort.  They would all go together.  I know they are all Christians, so they will be all right.

I know the code to get in their neighborhood gate, but do I know the alarm code for their house?  What will we do with their dog?  Where is she, anyway?  I think they boarded her, but how will we know?  We could take one of the cats but I don't think we could take both.  And where is their van?  It must be in long-term parking at the airport, but how would we get the keys?  And how would we know where to look for it, anyway?  And would the parking people let us take it without the ticket?  The ticket is floating in the Pacific!!!

I'm sure their pastor, Grif, would do the Memorial Service at their church.  Or would they recover bodies?  How long does that take?  Do you wait to have a funeral till then? Well, it would be closed casket anyway.  We could use the kids' school pictures.  And Josh and Jerilyn just had a really good picture taken recently when their church made directories.  Maybe the Bell Choir that Jerilyn directed could play at the service.  But, oh no!  Who would direct it??

I looked at the clock.  It was five twenty-two.  I needed to get praying.  And then the sun was coming in the window and I heard Dennis turning the shower on.  They haven't mentioned a plane crash on Good Morning America and it isn't on Yahoo.  I guess they would have it on the news by now if there had been one.  I think I'll text them in case they have landed.  But if they didn't crash, maybe they are sleeping because of jet lag so I shouldn't text.

You always hear on television and movies that a good mother would "Just know" if something happened to her child.  But does that work when the child is in his thirties?  And what about spouses?  Pre-cell phone days when Dennis was late getting home from work or a trip I could have his funeral planned, pick out the pall bearers and the music and invest his life insurance before he ever walked in the door.  Except the one time he really did have an accident on the way home I was busy doing something and didn't even notice he was late till he called to tell me.  So much for my ESP, I guess.

You don't think I'm over reacting, do you?  I guess it could have been my bladder that woke me up in the night.