As\nwe exited the plane at London’s Heathrow Airport, the fatigue of a long and\ncrowded flight was taking its toll. A promised wheelchair was waiting but took\nme only to the first exit where we were told to wait for the special assistance\nvehicle that was coming. One other person who I discovered later was also\nchallenged by Parkinson’s was waiting patiently also. We had an hour and a half\nto transfer from the international flight to the one to Dublin, Ireland. The battery-operated\nvehicle pulled close as we positioned ourselves for what we thought would be an\nassisted journey to the arrivals area where we were to make our national\ndeclaration and move on to the domestic terminal. That journey was short lived\nas the driver pulled up close to an escalator walkway heading in the direction\nmarked for international arrivals. We were guided to a place that was being\nhosted by someone who seemed not to know anything about arrivals or departures\nor the need for wheelchairs for so many gathered there. Frustratingly, we\njoined a group of other somewhat disabled travelers as we made our way to the\ndomestic terminal. Seeing the sign for our flight to Dublin in the distance, we\nwere approached by a kind lady who offered help with the wheelchair she\ncommanded to whisk us on our way. Finally, at the gate and routed quickly to\nthe pre-boarding status, we took a seat next to the boarding walkway. Full of\ngratitude for the assistance, we tipped and bid farewell to the lady who\nhelped. I sat down in a sigh of relief as I put my cell phone beside me after\nchecking the time. We were motioned to enter the boarding hallway and I found\nmy cane to come in handy along the way. Just before boarding at the plane’s\ndoor I felt for my cell phone and in horror remembered laying it beside me on\nthe bench back at the boarding hall entrance. I approached the luggage handler\nstanding next to the aircraft door and explained to him where I recalled\nleaving my cell phone. He declared that he would check for it as we boarded the\nplane. Upon boarding, I notified two of the four flight attendants that I had\nleft my phone at the boarding gate entrance and was told they would be checking\nfor it. My heart was racing. So much was contained in that little instrument. I\nclosed my eyes and began to pray that God would guide the rescue of this\nseemingly meaning less piece of technology. The plane was filling with\npassengers and the attendants were otherwise pre-occupied. I was preparing my\nthinking and my heart for the process of acquiring new technology when I\nreturned to NC. The announcement of the door closing echoed, and I looked to\nthe front of the plane as I saw an attendant walking directly toward our\nsection. With a warm smile, he handed me my cellphone! With eyes tearing up, I\nshouted my thanks to him for what he had just done. I was reminded that even in\nthe midst of frustrations and distractions, there are opportunities for giving\nthanks for the answering of prayers. Sometimes the smallest of actions by us or\nothers can translate into a bundle of blessings! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we exited the plane at London’s Heathrow Airport, the fatigue of a long and crowded flight was taking its toll. A promised wheelchair was waiting but took me only to the first exit where we were told to wait for the special assistance vehicle that was coming. One other person who I discovered later […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parkinsons-disease-rants-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-thrivalist.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-thrivalist.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-thrivalist.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-thrivalist.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-thrivalist.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/the-thrivalist.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107,"href":"https:\/\/the-thrivalist.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-thrivalist.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-thrivalist.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-thrivalist.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}