Shhh, my sisters are
asleep and snoring. It’s only me still
awake in this little Airbnb cottage by the sea.
We are here on a little escape
– some sister time. It’s happy, it’s
scary, it’s sad. Life changes when
someone you love is seriously ill. Priorities
change. Needs change. But love stays solid.
We had planned on going on
a cruise. Tried to plan it around
treatments and doctor appointments. But
my sister Annette is weaker, and we weren’t sure being out in open water was a
smart idea. If she got sick on the boat,
we would probably be tossed off in a port and hospitalized who knows
where.
So, we scraped the idea of
a cruise.
Then we went to a medium,
who “spoke to our parents” from “the other side”, and they said (I paraphrase
only slightly here): “TAKE THE DAMN CRUISE, GIRLS!”. (The quotes above about “the other side” are
by no means meant to belittle the messages we received or the messenger who
delivered them – I went into the appointment a non-believer but came out
feeling relieved to have been able to communicate again with my parents.)
Anyway, our parents told
us (through the medium, who we do not believe knew we were planning a trip
before we went…) to take the cruise.
And when your parents tell you to do something (maybe especially
when they tell you to do something through a medium with an intriguing accent…)
– YOU LISTEN!
But if we couldn’t take
a cruise due to my sister’s fragile medical state, how could we TAKE A
CRUISE???
The 3 of us were talking
one evening, contemplating where we might be able to go to take a little
vacation. Somewhere warm. Hopefully with a beach. With good medical care should the need
arise. We were brainstorming, and
Annette said, “How about the Outer Banks?”.
I live only a few hours from OBX (Arlington, VA), yet had never
gone! “Yes, let’s do it! Perfect!” we all agreed.
But there was a problem… The CRUISE… We had wanted to take one, then were “ordered”
by our parents (from the great beyond) to go for it. So, before coming to OBX, we looked up
DOLPHIN CRUISES. They are 2 hour boat rides
where you look for dolphins. Sherry and I
cried when we discovered the best ranked dolphin cruise in the OBX is named CAPTAIN
JOHNNY’S. You see, John/Johnny was
our dad’s name (he died in November of 2018).
It just seemed so meant to be!
But when we called 2 days
before our flight to book a sail with Captain Johnny, it turned out the company
was closed for the season. Umm, season?? We hadn’t even considered season… Dang it.
We frantically did more
calling around – another dolphin cruise closed for the year… Then Sherry found one! Kitty Hawk Kites had a sail available when we
would be in town. In fact, if we grabbed
some tickets for the only day in town we had available, Thursday, we would be
passengers on the last sail of the season. Kismet!
Tickets for dolphin cruise booked – checked!
Our trip so far has gone
very well. The sisters were all in Omaha
so could fly together. That helped a lot
because with the 3 of us there is a lot of LUGGAGE, plus a wheelchair and “rollinator”
(our fancy word for walker). We had a
long layover in Midway (Chicago) to relax, recoup a bit, eat, then board flight
#2. After a rental car flub up (the car
company’s issue, not ours, but delayed us an hour or so), we got on our
way. We had dinner with great friends and
checked into our cute Airbnb. We are
about a block and a half from the beach and the layout of the house is good for
Annette getting around.
So today was the day of
the cruise. It has always taken us a bit
of time to get everyone ready and out the door for anything, and these days it
takes even longer 😊. But we made it to the port on time with bellies
full of fresh donuts. The staff were
super nice and helped Annette board with the wheelchair and get all set.
Then off we went!! And as we pulled away from the dock, the
captain spoke over the loud speaker and said, “Hello, welcome to the dolphin
cruise. I am your captain, Captain John…”.
I looked over at my sister
Sherry, and she was crying. I tried hard to hold back tears.
Seeing the dolphins was an
afterthought – icing on the cake at that point.
Because we were here – all
3 sissies. On our cruise. With John.
And with the wind and the
waves – that was all that mattered.
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