D-Day

My father passed away this past week. I've pretty much been on auto-pilot ever since. I want to write more about the last few days, but it is all still very raw and painful. So instead of focusing on his death, I'd like to focus some more about his life and the things he left me with. I know my entries of late have already been a bit on the emotional side, but I hope you will bear with me as writing helps me both heal and honor him as best I can.

Today is the 66th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Now, my father was a very patriotic man, but he never served in the military. Dad was in the ROTC in high school, and he and his classmates proudly stood honor guard in East Point, GA as the train carrying the body of President Franklin Roosevelt returned to Washington, DC from Warm Springs, GA following his death in 1945.

He planned on enlisting after high school and follow in the footsteps of several of his uncles and older cousins, but was turned down because of a broken arm (football injury) that never healed correctly and impacted his ability to hold and fire a rifle properly. So instead, he went on to college at Georgia State. Shortly after that, his own father passed away suddenly and Dad left school to go to work in order to help his mother take care of his younger brother and baby sister. But he was so very proud when his younger brother Paul grew up and joined the Navy during the Korean War.

As I was growing up, Dad always wanted to make sure that I was aware of the sacrifices that others made so that we could live free. Every year a few days before the school year started, Dad would call me out into the backyard where we would sit on the steps, and he would give me "The Speech." The Speech was the talk he gave me to explain how lucky we were in our country be provided with the opportunity to go to school and receive a good education. He would explain how children in some parts of the world didn't have that chance, and how in some countries, little girls were not afforded an opportunity to go to school at all. Then, he would explain to me that while I would pay nothing for my education, many who came before me had paid the ultimate price. Therefore, my only job as a child was to study hard, do my school work and ensure that I got all I could out of my education so that those men did not die in vain.

Me & my brother Steve at Pearl Harbor on the anchor of the USS Arizona

Through the years, our many vacations would take us to locations where he would reinforce the story of military sacrifice. I was 7 years old when our family went to Honolulu on vacation and visited Pearl Harbor.

Dad, Me & Steve on the boat to the USS Arizona Memorial

As the boat took us across the water to the memorial over the USS Arizona, Dad pointed to the oil still seeping up from the ship almost 30 years after it was sunk. He said they were the Tears of the Arizona, and he told me what he remembered as a 12 year old boy on that December day in 1942 when we were attacked. (Years later, as the events of 9-11 occurred, I understood some of what he must have felt that day.)

Wall of casualties at the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor

When we reached the big white memorial, with the names of almost 1,200 who were lost that day etched in the the marble wall, he reminded me that these were some of the men who paid for my education. It made quiet an impression on this 7 year old.

Some years later, as a 19 year old college student, I went with Mom and Dad on a European vacation. During the trip, we rode a hovercraft over the English Channel from the White Cliffs of Dover to the Beaches near Normandy.

Omaha Beach as seen from the Normandy American Cemetery

As we reached the coast of France, the hovercraft took a slight detour from the direct route and took us out towards Omaha Beach where you could see where part of the D-Day landing occurred. It was overcast that day and there was a foggy mist in the air, and I felt a cold shiver as we made the approach. I wondered how those young infantry men who were probably about my age at the time must have felt that early morning almost 40 years earlier as they waited on the order for the assault to begin. Everything seemed to go quite around me, the sound of the hovercraft, the voices of the other passenger. It was surreal silence that was probably only occurring in my head. And as I looked over to my Dad sitting next to me, I could see the tears in his eyes.

Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer

I saw those same tears, and matched them with my own, a few hours later when we visited the American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer where the bodies of over 9,000 American servicemen who paid for my education were laid to rest.

Now I wasn't always a straight A student, and I'm not going to pretend I came home from this trip and suddenly made Dean's List every quarter. But I've always tried my best, and I've always remembered my Daddy's lessons and the sacrifice of those young men.

I'll end this with a quote from the movie Saving Private Ryan. "I've tried to live my life the best I could. I hope that was enough. I hope that at least in your eyes, I've earned what all of you have done for me."

The Lord's Prayer

We have a tradition in my family. Of course, I guess every family has a family tradition or two, otherwise why would Hank Williams, Jr. have bothered to write a song about them? But the tradition I hold most dear to my heart is one that my Dad started long before I was born: The saying of the Lord's Prayer as we head out on any long journey.

Steve, me and Dad on one of my first trips - Daytona Beach, FL - 1964

Dad worked for Delta Air Lines for over 40 years, and one of the wonderful perks (and one of the reasons that I to went to work for them too) is the generous travel benefits. In his years at Delta and in retirement, Dad has managed to hit 48 of the 50 states (he's missing the Dakotas) and every continent except for Australia (he's even been to Antarctica.) That's pretty good for a poor kid from East Point, GA who was born during the Depression.

Me & Dad at the Petrified Forrest, Navajo, AZ - 1971

When traveling on an airline employee pass, you typically are traveling standby/space available. So, to give ourselves the best chance to get on a flight, we always tried for the first flight of the day. That usually meant getting up at 3:30 a.m. and leaving for the airport at 4:00 a.m. to try and catch a 6:00 a.m. flight. So many an early morn, well before dawn, we would load up in the car, back out of the driveway onto 1st Avenue, and then, as Dad put the car in drive, he would say, "Let's say our prayer." And as one, we would all begin:

Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us,

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen.

Me, Dad & Steve - Disneyland, Anaheim, CA - 1976

We lived so close to the airport, that by the time we were finished with our prayer, we were pretty much pulling into the parking lot. Around the time I was 7 or 8, I remember wondering how Dad managed to drive all that way with his eyes closed. I was probably about 11 before I worked up the nerve to sneak a peek during the prayer and see if his eyes were indeed closed. For the record, they were open. Good thing I learned that before I became the one who did most of the driving to the airport.

Dad & me in Squaw Valley, CA - July 1980

It wasn't just airplane trips that brought out the prayer - we did it on road trips, heading to hospitals for surgeries, basically any time we were going to need some strength and protection from above. My brother told me that just before Dad took Mom to the hospital for my birth, the three of them said the prayer together.

Me & Dad at the Rhine River in Lorch, Germany - September 1983

Today I sat with Daddy at the hospital for a few hours and watched him as he slept. He goes through bouts of confusion, the doctors say because of all the mediation they've had him on, but there is some thought that he may have also had a minor stroke in the last few days as well. So, when I can, I try to let him sleep. But he woke up for a few moments and said, "How you doing, Tune?" (Tune is one of his silly nicknames for me, short for Petunia. Not sure if Petunia came from the flower or the Looney Tunes pig, but I've always hoped it was from the flower.) Then he asked me if I was ready to say our prayer.

Me and Dad in front of the Houses of Parliament, London - September 1984

I held his hand, we closed our eyes and we began to recite as we have so many times before. I held back a little, wanting to see if he could remember the words on his own, and he did. Although his voice was weak, he spoke every single word correctly. Then when we finished, with his eyes still closed, he said "I'm ready for the trip."

Mom & Dad on the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper, Alberta, Canada - October 1999

I pretty much lost it at that moment, thinking he was speaking of that last, metaphorical trip, if you understand what I mean. As the tears began welling up in my eyes, and I was trying so hard not to make a noise or let the dam break in front of him, without even opening his eyes he quietly said, "We'll make it to Australia like we planned, Tune. I promise you."

I really pray we do.

Dad kicking back in BusinessElite on the way to Buenos Aries, Argentina - February 2008

12 of 12 - July 2009

Thinking about renaming this The Joni 12 of 12 Blog since that seems to be the only thing I've posted this year. Guess I'm in an introspective place where I'm doing more thinking and dwelling on stuff rather than writing about it. (See Chad Darnell's Blog for details about the 12 of 12)

So, this month's 12 of 12, subtitled Leaving Las Vegas, is all about me trying to get back from a quick weekend vacation to Vegas with my parents. They had a longer trip planned, but I tagged along for two days just to get away and get some rest. All that rest was pretty much undone on the trip home, but such is the life of a standby traveler.

Anyway, since I was losing 3 hours on the travel back east, I decided to start my 12th at 12:00 a.m. eastern time, so it was 9:00 p.m. in Vegas as I got started.

12:05 am (et) - The Bellagio Fountains - Stopped to watch the water show one more time before leaving the hotel to head to the airport for my flight home. Always love it when we get a room on the side where you can watch the show.

12:10 a.m. - Mom taking a peak out at the activity on the Strip.

12:33 a.m. - Waiting on the the train to the terminal and fiddling with my camera, I manage to finally find an angle where it doesn't look like I have 14 chins.

12:36 a.m. - On the train to the D Terminal at LAS. After the flash went off when I snapped this one, all these people turned to give me a dirty look. Trying to figure out a way to unobtrusively photograph random people without giving them the creeps or having them give me dirty looks. I tried after this to turn off the flash as I snapped, but the quality sucks when I do. Any advise from you 12 of 12ers that are more experienced photographers??

1:19 a.m. - from the terminal window - See you later Vegas!

2:50 a.m. .... and by later, I guess I mean in an hour and a half. While getting ready to push back, they found a problem with the a/c, so we were delayed a couple of hours waiting on the fix. They initially said we could stay on board or deplane as we preferred, but after the on board temp went above 90, they had us all deplane. So, back at the gate, waiting on the all clear and looking for some photo ops

2:58 a.m. - as opposed to throwing away any more money.

9:22 a.m. - Yay - back home in ATL. This train is leaving the station, please hang on.

9:26a.m - Welcome to Atlanta

10:23 a.m. - Took a little while to get my bag from baggage claim (had to gate check it at the last minute as I was the last one cleared onto the flight) and then had to wait on the shuttle over to the office, so finally making it home and picking up my mail. Wow - Michael Jackson died. I had not heard that.

11: 02 a.m. - Not really sure what I did, but my knee and ankle are both very sore and very swollen, so I had to drag out 4 different ice packs to try and get some relief. Finally took a pain pill and crashed for the rest of the day...

until a storm woke me up well after dark. Not really sure what time this was as the power had gone out and I was still sort of groggy from the jet lag and pain pill.

So, there you go. Thanks for visiting. See you next month, if not sooner.

12 of 12 - October 2008

Finally posting my 12 of 12. It has been a long exhausting couple of days. I went to Vegas (kudos to Laura/Zin for guessing correctly) with my parents and a couple of Dad's friends.

Unfortunately, after the first day, the trip ended up abruptly coming to an end, as my Dad got really sick. He was already coming off of knee replacement surgery 6 weeks ago and pushing himself to go on the trip to prove that he was recovered. But the first night there, he couldn't sleep and said he felt like he was drowning. Helping him with his shoes in the morning, I noticed that his feet and legs were swollen, and so the decision was made to come home immediately. He is now in the hospital and it looks like he was going into congestive heart failure. They have treated him with some diuretics and other meds and he is already looking better, but his cardiologist wants to hold him for a few more days to be safe. But thank God he is improving.

So anyway, here are my pics before the trip took a turn. Leaving the times off, since once I leave on vacation, I have no concept of what time it is anywhere.

Me and Dad at the airport awaiting our flight.

High above the Mississippi River.

Mom on a plane.

In Vegas, next to the tram that takes you from the D terminal to the main terminal. They have murals done by local kids of various destinations. This one is obviously Berlin.

And a little shout out to my Dallas friends.

I wanted to head down the strip and take photos at Paris and New York to play up the angle of multiple destinations, but when I walked out to take the photo of ancient Rome/Caesar's Palace, it was like 40 degrees and windy, so this ....

and this (The Mirage) is all I got.

I hate when they put up Christmas before we've even had Halloween. But, since it is a Flamingo tree, I will give them a small break.

We went down to get Mom (Maxine) signed in for her tournament, and we ran into the other Maxine - an event coordinator for the Flamingo. She is one of many friends that Mom and Dad have made at the hotel over the years.

I went back up to the room to slip in a little nap, and I spotted a wedding taking place down in the hotel gardens out back. You can see the bride coming up the pathway, about to make her walk down the aisle.

They really don't like for you to take random photos in the casino area, so I sort of snapped this one with the camera down by my side as I walked through on the way to meet Dad and his friends. I have turned this photo every which way, but I'm still not sure which way was up.

Here is Dad and his friends Fred and Buck. We really enjoyed having them along, and they were a huge help when we determined that Dad was starting to get sick and needed to get back home. Dad really does have some of the best friends, and they can really be counted on in times of need. I'm sure once word gets out that he is in the hospital, there will be a revolving door of his buddies coming in and out visiting and lightening his mood.

Up and Running

Neighbor Kirk came over and set up my scanner for me today. (Love neighbor Kirk)

I'm fighting the urge to sit here for the next 72 hours straight scanning every photo that I ever owned (and seeing how it looks in sepia tone) but I am going to fight the urge and try to do something more productive instead. Like eat dinner, take a shower, take out the trash.

But, before I close up shop for the night, I thought I'd share one of the test scans for your viewing enjoyment.

That's me at the Spouting Horn in Kauai in about 1970. I was young, cute, weighed less than 100 pounds and was on an all expenses paid (by my Dad) vacation in frikin Hawaii. Life was good.

The Longest Day

I decided to surprise my cousin Bonnie for her birthday by hoping a flight to Los Angeles and showing up unannounced at the closing night of the showcase that she produces. Sounds easy, right?

Yeah - not so much.

It started out fairly easy - I emailed one of her friends, the fabulous Deb McCarthy, to be my co-conspirator, and she was thrilled with the prospect. She added me as an unnamed guest when she sent in her RSVP, and she advised me of the logistics of where I was going and best, least expensive way to get there. Then, I worked the July 4th holiday and some extra hours at the start of the week, so that I was in a good place to be off for the trip. Things are really busy at work lately, and I also knew that I didn't want my visit to be a disruption to Bonnie as she works her butt off on these showcases and would probably be pretty wiped out by the end. So, the plan was for a very short trip - total time in LA to be about 14 hours.

Things started promisingly enough Thursday morning. I woke up at 5:00 am ET and my neighbor Katie dropped me at the airport on her way to work at 6:30. The flight I was standing by for was scheduled to leave at 8:30 am and it had a lot of open seats. Got through security quickly and was at the gate within minutes. Started to get a bagel at the Wall Street Deli, but they only had cinnamon raisin left, so I figured I'd just wait and eat what they had on the plane. I cleared standby with no problems, and boarded with an aisle seat near the front. And hey! Celebrity siting (rapper from ATL that was spoofed hilariously by Dave Chappell) and I'm not even in LA yet.

As I fastened my seat belt and got out my magazine, the pilot comes over the loud speaker and says that we have a problem with a fuel pump and they need to bring over a new plane. So - everybody off the plane. Oh, and the new plane? It has 30 fewer seats, so all standby passengers? Thank you for playing, please try again.

For the next couple of hours, I (and several others) went from gate to gate, hoping to clear. The airport was incredibly crowded and the weather was getting pretty bad. But I was making the best of it and enjoying my new standby friends, including a retired Delta couple that was returning from a 72 day cruise around the world (their 2nd!), a young LA school teacher returning from a 3 week vacation in Chile, and a dumb chick that thought it would would be a smart idea to save the $100 difference between a discounted confirmed ticket and non-confirmed buddy pass instead when she was flying to LA to be a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding.

Finally, after 4 failed attempts, and another mechanical problem, we were down to my last shot - the 4:00 pm flight. It would arrive in LA at 6:00 and I would have 2 hours to make it to the show. My luck returned and I and my new found standby friends all cleared and started to board. Then a storm hit and they had to suspend boarding for a bit. Once we completed boarding, it looked like we would still leave just a few minutes late, but then they decided to hold the flight for some connecting passengers that arrived late due to the storm. After staring out the window at the returning rain and trying to mentally will the pilot to get started, we finally departed at 5:00 pm.
About that time, I realized that I hadn't eaten a thing all day and none of the meal choices were working for me due to allergies. But I had some Biscoff (yum) so that helped. Things also got better as I won the first round of in-flight Trivia. Yay me!

Arrived in LA at 6:45 pm PT and quickly determined that the only way I would make it in time was a cab ride through LA traffic. Following several 'where are you now?" phone calls to Deb, and the most Expensive! Cab! Ride! Ever! I arrived with 10 whole minutes to spare.

And my baby cousin? Well, when the response you receive from your intended surpise vicitm is 1. Mouth drops open, 2. The word "Holy" combined with a curse word is uttered, and 3. Tears, you figure it was a success.

Bonnie looked great, the showcase was wonderful, and her friends, as usual, embraced me and made me feel so completely welcomed (like Eitan below). I'm so incredibly proud of Bonnie and all she has accomplished, and it is so great to see all of her hard work on display first hand. The even more satisfying part though, was at the after party, when I heard person after person talk about how much they love Bonnie and how much she has helped them.

Unfortunately, by 11:00 pm PT, the party was over for me, and I had to get back to the airport for my return flight. Which was delayed (of course) and allowed all the late arrivals to make the flight, thereby robbing me of a seat. By that time, the early morning flight would be departing within 4 hours anyway, so I ended up spending the night in the airport. There were only about 10 of us, and most found quite corners and fell asleep in the floor or on benches, but I can't sleep sitting up, so I was getting a little giddy. I made a friend with a sweetheart of a guy named Dean, who like me couldn't sleep. He was on his way to Mexico to visit his girlfriend who was there helping to build a medical facility. We stayed entertained with his i-phone for a while, and wandered the terminal until dawn broke and the others woke up.

We all made the 6:00 am PT flight, and I after watching 5 episodes of a Project Runway marathon on the in-flight satellite TV, I was home by 3:00 pm ET - 34 sleepless hours after I had begun.

Yeah - totally worth it all. :-)

Vegas Vacation

I took a few days off for a short vacation to Vegas with my mother. It ended up being a little shorter than expected, as we came home a day early because I wasn't feeling well. But for the first two days, we had a pretty good time and a little dose of good luck.

We got first class on the flight out

Got the side of the aircraft with the good views of the Grand Canyon, Hoover Damn (below) and Lake Mead


Our room had a nice view of the mountains and the gardens

We were upgraded to one of the Flamingo's new fancy rooms with a flat panel TV in the main room
and another TV in the bathroom

(although truthfully, the West Elm decor was a bit too hot pink and loud for our taste)

Mom even won $160.00 on the penny slots within the first ten minutes of our arrival into the casino (following this shot, I spent the next hour explaining to Mom what a blog is, who reads them and why. I walked away from that conversation more confused than she was.)

Of course, by the next day, our luck started to run out a bit. We started working on returning the $160.00, the outside temp went to 106, and my sinuses dried up and exploded. I did manage to walk outside the hotel just once, and that lasted about 30 seconds before I retreated back to the air-conditioned casino. But here is photographic evidence of my journey to the middle of the sun.

Oh, and as many times as I've been to Vegas, I never noticed their Walk of Fame. This was the star just outside the door I chose. I considered it to be a little inside-joke/shout out to one of my best buds.

We had a touch more luck before we headed home - both in the casino and at the airport, where although there were 80+ standbys for the flight home, we cleared with no problem and even got to sit together.

Just hoping that all that luck will carry over into the next few weeks.