Ok so now I had to get control of myself. My mom and I talked once a week every week for as long as I had been out of the house (about 10 years). She was my best friend. Needless to say, I was 1400 miles away and helpless. I couldn't lose my job by taking off too long. My dad said for me to wait and see what happened. I waited. I talked to my dad a few times a week for the next two months. This is saying a lot. My dad and I were not close at all! I dreaded the fact the he was my only communication with my mom. Mom started having small seziures in May of 2001. I finally told my dad I was coming out and he would just have to live with the fact.

First of all, I had never flown alone anywhere. My husband was my constant companion and I could do anything with him by my side. He couldn't get the time off of work to go with me, so I went alone. What a disaster. I flew TWA out of Phoenix to St. Louis. I had about 1 hour before catching the puddle jumper to Arkansas. Well, as TWA has a way of doing, I got to the terminal about 10 minutes prior to my connecting flight. The wonderful people at TWA told me the gate I needed to go to was clear on the other side of the terminal. Could they get someone to take me there? No. I ran through the airport crying with my cell phone in hand on the phone with my husband. Well, TWA was wrong. The gate I needed was two gates away from the one I came in on! So I found it and lucky for me it was a really small airlines that is now out of business. They had held the plane waiting for me. The gentleman told me where the smoking lounge was and he would come get me when it was time to leave. They gave me 5 minutes to get my breath before I got on the plane. I felt so save and secure on this little plane that you couldn't even hear yourself think because of the props, it was weird and wonderful in a way. So the plan was when I landed to take the only taxi in town to my parents house. Well, the taxi didn't run on Tuesday and it was Tuesday. My dad had found that out and came to pick me up.