Fevers, Flights, and a Funeral

Simply put, this past week was absolutely insane. Actually, it began late last week when Emerson had a temp of 102.5 on Thursday night. He was obviously not feeling well since he refused to eat anything (nothing for nearly three days!) and did not sleep well. Friday, I stayed home to monitor him and make sure things didn't get any worse, but after two full days of watching a sick kid on my own I was about to jump off our balcony. Thankfully, life was made a bit simpler by ordering pizza for dinner. But of course, fevers of our own kindly followed suit, and I spent the first couple days of the work week having chills, hot flashes, dizzy spells, and the worst sore throat I can remember since high school.

Then on Monday afternoon, I received a phone call that an old high school friend had died over the weekend. Mark struggled with epilepsy throughout his life, and it appears he suffered a massive seizure in his sleep on Sunday night. After the teary phone call, I asked Andrea, his sister, to keep me posted on the details and then made some phone calls of my own to notify some other friends of the news.

Tuesday, I took Emerson to the doctor just to make sure that whatever he had and gave to me wasn't strep (thankfully, we both tested negative). Then that night, Andrea called back to ask if I could officiate the entire funeral ceremony (I've spoken at two funerals before but never organized the entire thing). The Zonnevelds had never been connected with a church and felt really uncomfortable with a complete stranger involved with the service, so they asked me to officiate since I had been such a spiritual influence in Mark's life. I gladly accepted and quickly (a little too quickly it seems) bought tickets for a flight to Atlanta on Saturday morning.

On Wednesday, I was still really sick, but in addition to work, an unusually busy work schedule for Amber (we swapped Emerson in the middle of the day and I took him home on the bus), and a number of other to-do things that had to get done (the grass still needs mowed!), I now had to begin gathering thoughts on a eulogy. Thursday, I watched Emerson, worked on details for our summer vacation, and discussed details for the funeral with Andrea and her Uncle Rob. Things were finally starting to shape up. Then off to the salon to get my first really short haircut in 3 years.

On Friday night, I finished my draft on my actual message and figured I'd have to make time on the flight to give thought to my opening prayer and benediction. After Emerson went to bed, I went to print off my flight ticket to discover that somehow I managed to book a flight not for the weekend but for March 2011 (@*%#!!!!). Seriously, I'm not sure how that happened, but I immediately called Delta to see if I could get my flight switched. The guy told me I should call Expedia first (since I bought my tix through them), and then explained that if I were to switch my flight to the times I wanted it would cost about $400 more than the $300 I had already shelled out, and if I were to take one flight later it would still cost me $300 more. So, I called Expedia and after being on hold for a very long time, they told me I could get a flight for Saturday morning (not the flight I wanted but good enough) for an extra $129. So, I gave them my credit card number, received my new itinerary from Expedia, and went off to bed.

Saturday morning, I got up at 5:30AM, and I knew something was fishy when I couldn't print off my e-ticket (I had not been given a Delta confirmation code...). I went to the airport with my new Expedia itinerary (for a flight supposed to leave at 7:50), and the lady at the Delta desk tells me I'm not in their system and they only have a record that I inquired into the flight with the Delta guy from last night. Baffled as I was, I show the supervisor my receipt from Expedia, and after 10-15 minutes of going around, the supervisor says, "Well the flight has plenty of seats--but its now delayed for 9:15--but you didn't pay for this ticket." I insist that I gave the man from Expedia my credit card and paid extra to get my flights changed. The Supervisor finally prints off a ticket that has bold letters written on it: TICKET COUPON REQUIRED and attaches what obviously is whatever a ticket coupon is (I assume details regarding my switched flights??) and tells me that I did not pay for this ticket.

Upon arriving in Atlanta around 11:15 (at least the delay gave me good time to work on the funeral details!), I'm greeted with an "urgent" cell phone message from a supervisor at Expedia detailing to me that whatever the guy did for me the night before in transferring my tickets was not allowed since I had already been issued a ticket (which doesn't make sense since I didn't get my ticket until I got to the airport) and that I would have to work out my ticket situation with someone at the Delta counter at the airport. In short, I had no idea if I had a ticket to get home. Of course, I was happy enough that I had made it down there on time!

At this point, my first priority is to be there for the family and then to perform a funeral. When I got to Mark's parents' house, they greeted me with great bear hugs and tears. It is a bittersweet moment to mourn the loss of a friend, yet at the same time, feel so honored that people are so appreciative of your mere presence (It also changes the way you hug your own child after you hug the father of the person you're doing a funeral for). There were also relatives who had flown in from Germany, Holland, and China, and old friends from Illinois, all who welcomed me and treated me as part of the family (and while I was there it was not at all uncommon for table conversation to move seamlessly from English to Dutch to German (amazing!)). It was such a rich and profound moment--we were on holy ground--and it had never been more real to me that my calling right now was to be the body of Jesus to these people simply by being there, offering a sympathetic touch, a kind word, and a mournful tear.

The funeral was just wonderful [more on that in another post as this one is already quite long!], and I was in awe of how many people were there. Aside from family and close friends, dozens of coworkers of Mark attended as well as scores of parents and children who had been in one of Carla's (Mark's mom) elementary school classes. It truly was a diverse mix of people, and yet as various members of Mark's family shared memories and I spoke, an amazing sense of camaraderie and unity of spirit could be sensed. These people had gathered to remember a person they loved and to show their love to a hurting family. Everyone afterward was truly appreciative of what I had said, and I was just thankful to be a part of this special moment, despite how unfortunate it was.

I didn't get around to calling Expedia again until around 6PM (and checked one-way flights on someone's IPhone if it came down to just getting an altogether new itinerary to get home). Still at this point, the Expedia website and their phone tree are reading my itinerary as if my flight tomorrow is a "go." Then, the lady from Expedia proceeds to also read through my itinerary but explains that I must work out my ticket with the Delta counter. Since her explanation still did not tell me whether or not I actually still had a ticket for Sunday morning, I finally said, "So are you telling me that I have a confirmed ticket for tomorrow morning or not." After being on hold for a good while (she obviously needed to confer with her supervisor!), I was given a Delta confirmation of my flight itinerary.

So, by this point, I'm happy that at least I'm in Delta's system which is more than I could say the flight before. Then, I get an email from Delta confirming my flight and they have me on a different flight than what Expedia had told me ten minutes before. I went with Delta's information, printed off all the material from their website that showed I had a flight with them, and headed off to the airport Sunday morning. I can tell you I was more nervous going up to the Delta ticket counter than I was preaching at the funeral! Thankfully, I got my ticket, again with big words: TICKET COUPON REQUIRED. But the lady didn't staple anything onto my ticket. Through security and on to the gate, and let's just see what happens. The guy scanning tickets at the gate asked, me if I had a ticket coupon, and I tell him, "This is all the lady gave me." He shakes his head and types on half a dozen different windows on his computer screen and out comes an identical ticket with no big words typed on it. Finally, home free. And despite the fiasco, at least I got a couple extra packages of Delta's tasty gingerbread cookies from the nice flight hostess!