Epilogue to our Hawaii Cruise

Epilogue

I apologize. My blog posts from our Hawaiian cruise ended quite abruptly with our port day in Ensenada so I want to go back in time and finish the story. 

Back to Saturday, February 17...

Our disembarkation of the Koningsdam went smoothly. When we got off of the ship, our luggage was right where it was supposed to be. Going through customs took literally seconds as all we were required to do was a quick biometrics check. And after not seeing our ship friends, Ron and Jean, for the last half of the cruise, we ran into them in the terminal. Quick hugs and we were able to say "goodbye." I feel bad we didn't take time to exchange email addresses but they will go into my "souvenir memories" as a special part of our trip. 

Traffic was just a mess around the terminal so I suggested we go out to the street and walk a little ways before calling an Uber. This proved to be a smart plan. When we reached the front of the Wyndham Bayfront Hotel, I used the Uber app to request a pickup and the driver arrived within five minutes!

The ride to the airport was quick and uneventful but when we arrived, our flight was showing that it was delayed. Our connection in Salt Lake City had already been shortened thanks to flight changes made by Delta and as we waited, the first leg of our flight continued to get delayed even more. I knew the chances of us making the connection were slim and I was concerned.

Once our flight did take off, I talked to one of the all male flight crew as he was serving drinks and told him I was afraid we weren't going to make our next flight. He asked where we were going and when I said "MSP" he just smiled. The same flight crew was also assigned to our next flight as well. He said "I promise we won't leave you!" 

Since I knew I was going to struggle to get from one gate to the other with my bad knee, I had requested airport assistance via the Delta app. Once we landed, a sweet gal was waiting in SLC with a wheel chair and gave me a ride. She even stopped by our gate and checked to make sure she had enough time to get me to the restroom before the boarding began (a much needed stop!) 

The middle seat between Bob and I was empty on the last leg which made the flight a little more pleasant. Our gate at MSP was just about as far as possible from baggage claim and this time the gate agent was upset because the wheel chair that I (and several others) had requested had not arrived. I knew it would be painful but I figured I could walk if we went slow. Instead he suggested we flag down one of the electric carts which we did. I felt like a celebrity whizzing through the airport with our chauffeur. 

One last little piece of drama happened when we were waiting at baggage claim at MSP. A kid's giant hockey bag was the first to come out on the carousel and somehow it got tangled up in the conveyor belt blocking all of the other bags. Airport workers were pulling and tugging and it wouldn't budge. Eventually they had to get a knife and just cut the bag into pieces. As a hockey mom of three boys, I know how expensive hockey equipment is so I know the owners were not going to be happy when they discovered what had happened.

I would like to end this post by saying "and everyone lived happily ever after", but that wasn't the case. What I didn't mention previously was that all during the cruise I had been trying to keep in touch with my sister. (My real reason for splurging on the ship Wi-Fi.) She had been admitted to the hospital a couple of days after our cruise began and had continued to get worse. "J" is single and my only sibling so I was extra concerned about her condition.

T-Mobile provides Wi-Fi on Delta flights and on the way home I was getting texts from her friend that she wasn't doing well at all. She has lived with various health issues but during her frequent hospital stays she has always managed to improve and be discharged. I assumed that would be the case this time. She lived in St. Louis so I offered to drive down when we got home but she insisted she would be OK. After we were home for a few days I knew that wasn't the case. Bob and I packed up again and against J's protests, drove the 700 miles to St. Louis.

I knew she was going to need extra help at home when she was released from the hospital and I was glad we would be there to help. But...her hospital stay just kept getting extended. There were multiple issues going on and trying to deal with any one problem would just make the others get worse. The doctors were at a loss as to what to do.

My sister was a nurse...a hospice nurse. When she knew there were no good options for treatment, she called the head of the hospice program for the large St. Louis hospital system and said she wanted to make a referral...herself. He personally came to her room and J laid out how she wanted things to go during her last days including what nurses she wanted to care for her and what drugs she would like to receive for comfort. He made sure everything was taken care of as she requested.

Plans were made for a hospital bed and oxygen to be delivered to her house and J came home by ambulance at 4:00 pm on a Friday afternoon. The hospice nurses that cared for J treated her like royalty. All had worked with her for many years and it was easy to see how hard it was for them to care for "one of their own."

Bob and I assured J that we would be there to help for as long as she needed. Part of me was holding out hope that somehow she would slowly get better. We assumed we would be staying for a few weeks but by 4:00 pm on Sunday, just 48 hours later, she was gone.

I felt like God had given us a gift because on her first evening at home, J was lucid and in good spirits. We laughed and told stories of our growing up years and she even made Facetime calls to each of our three sons. By the next morning she was fading and by that afternoon she had quit responding. What a blessing that the last memories our three boys will have of their favorite aunt would be so special.

I am so grateful that we were home and able to be with my sister for the last couple of weeks of her life. Had we taken the 35-day cruise that I had originally booked we would have been in the middle of the South Pacific at that time. I believe that the "uneasy feeling" that caused me to cancel that cruise was a nudging from God.

Taking care of needed details after J's passing meant by the time we returned to Minnesota it was only a few weeks until our next travels were scheduled to begin. During that time my emotions were all over the place. It was hard to focus on travel plans but at the same time I knew getting away would be a much needed break from the sadness and grief.

As I am writing this, our next trip (another cruise) has already taken place. My goal is to get daily blog posts published for this trip because I do want to record our memories. If you are interested and don't mind that the posts are a little delayed, sign up to get email notifications when I post anything new. Thanks also to those that have emailed or taken time to comment on these posts. My main goal with this blog is to preserve our memories, but it is fun to know that others are reading as well!