Ladies, What Are You Doing in Chicago Anyway?

Ladies, what are you doing in Chicago anyway? For her mother, it was important to split the visiting time between two households - her daughter's family in Miami, helping her with grandchildren during the summertime and her oldest grandson's family in Baltimore. He had an adorable boy. It would be her grand grandson that she missed to see, growing from a baby into a smart toddler. But this was not the only idea her mother had, as she wanted to treat her grandson and his wife with her special fish dish. The young couple did not have a grading machine for meat processing in their household. Because of this, her mother prepared it in advance, put it in plastic bag, inside a lunch box, with a cooler to keep it fresh. Her carrying mother was holding up to the lunchbox with a special treat at all the time during this unusual trip. Her accompanied daughter did not check her luggage in to save time at the exit to town and kept it with her. It was a rookie mistake and the worst decision ever she made.

So far, the two ladies, mother and daughter, had such a good time together, by catching up on small talks. They missed each other a lot. The mother was happy to have her daughter by her side as she did not speak English well. She studied it when she was young but did not practice it. However, she was fluent in other languages, including German that could be also handy at the international airport.

The mother was in front, and the daughter followed her from behind at the escalator. It is difficult to know and tell, if her shoe stocked at the stairs, or she was too slowly to step up on the steady ground. She fell down. The daughter's hands were busy with the bag, and she could not catch her from behind. The crowd of people were coming up from the moving escalator, and it was a disaster. The daughter did not have any physical force to pick her mother up. She understood that the situation is serious as her mom could not move on her own. But people are good. Good Samarian genuine strong young men helped the mother to the bench. One man identify himself as a doctor, and he quickly tried to examine her to see if she could make it to Baltimore's flight's gate on her own. He commanded to call for a wheelchair to continue with the long airport walk. Some other caring people called and arranged the wheelchair delivery. Thanks God, it was enough time, and they were not at a hurry. When the plane came, the boarding people stepped up again, and the miracles and people's goodwill continue to follow. The seats were in the middle of the plane but a man from the first-class area gave up his expensive comfortable seat. The old lady had a good care and lunch, not from her lunch box. She did not give it to the flight attended to put on the shelf above her seat, not even for an hour, as she guarded her special gift by her side of all time. 

Ha, let you tell you something. I was sharing this story with my friend, a Homeland Security professional who was teaching the course on airport security at the University to students of the Criminal Justice program, and nobody was laughing from the foxy seventy-year-old lady on the plane, with a raw fish food item inside her lunch box that she sneaked inside the plane, with all the rules and restrictions that airport provided. In Baltimore, the mother arrived and rolled out in the wheelchair into happy strong hands of her grandson that simply lifted her and carried her to his SUV car. Yeah, you probably guessed it, they went straight from the airport to the emergency room at the Baltimore's Mount Sinai Hospital.