we can be heroes

My father-in-law was supposed to fly to Houston yesterday. He was up before 4am to get to BWI, where apparently he waited several hours because of weather at his intermediate destination before they flew him to Tampa - and then he couldn’t get out. I’m sure there’s a reason they’d haul a whole planeful of people to a place where they wouldn’t be able to make their connections, but there he was, and no hotels, no rental cars; his idea was to drive far enough to get to a hotel that wasn’t full up and then just drive home today, I think, and maybe bag the Texas trip entirely, but even that wasn’t working out. I was about to post to Facebook to ask if anyone had ideas when I thought, wait a sec, I have people in Tampa, and I texted my college roommate L’s mom. Who texted back “call me,” and within a few minutes I was able to call him and say “Go to arrivals, she’s coming to get you.”

Never met before, but she hopped right in the car to fetch him back to the house and put him up in, frankly, more comfort than he’d have had in a hotel. ❤️❤️❤️ The heroism of a family friend who collects people. SO (a) we all slept better last night as well and (b) must now brainstorm thank-you gifts. Flower arrangement may be taken as read, but what else? Wine? Bonbons? (Obviously also “next time you’re up this way we are taking you to a nice dinner and I don’t want to hear any argument about it.”)