12 Weeks Of Letter Writing Challenge - Week 6

Today's post is participating in the 12 Weeks Of Letter Writing Challenge that I was invited to by Mrs. Dash Say's....blog here.

This weeks letter is to a stranger who was nice to me.

Truth be told, I almost did not make it to this blog post today. You see, this weekend, I found out that my sister is terminally ill and, naturally, that threw me for a loop. 
Anyway. I am determined to forge on as I am not really ready to put these swirling emotions on virtual paper yet.

So, this is a pretty easy one.

Dear Stranger,

It was in the late eighties that I worked for the commuter airline for Eastern Airline - boy am I dating myself here!! It was called Eastern Express. It operated out of a satelite terminal located smack dab next to the main runway at Miami International Airport. You had to take a big city bus from the main terminal to get to our small building that housed about four

Beech C99

gates. As is normal practice in the airline world, the flights were frequently overbooked. However, being a 'commuter' airline, we had very small aircraft ranging from a 15 passenger, unpressurized Beech C99 to the 50 passenger Saab 2000 Turboprop. My point being, they filled up FAST. Rarely was there a flight that didn't have double the amount of passengers show up. Often, because of our strange location, and extra time it took to get there, we had many no-shows. Having a passenger (who had been drinking at the local watering hole in the main terminal) scream at you because the plane was pulling away, was frequent. All this for the whooping sum of $6.50 an hour folks!!
Anyway...
One day, you showed up at my counter. You were a weathered older gent that had been around the block (at least twice). Your hair was a mess, you had a GREAT tan, and you wore a lot of gold. Not unusual at the time. You had missed an earlier flight, but instead of being a jerk, you were so polite and spoke in such a low voice, asking me if you could stand by for this flight. Well, unfortunately, this flight was TRIPLE booked! There was no possible way you were getting on this flight, and I advised you of that, but, you decided to wait it out. We did have five more flights going to Key West that night. That flight came and went and so did the next, but you waited. You finally got your break when we were 20 mins from closing the doors to the next flight, and there was one no show. I made the announcement that the flight was closed and that we would be calling standbys when, lo and behold, the last passenger runs up to the counter, smelling strongly of alcohol and wants his seat. I calmly advised him that there were no more seats and he had missed the check in and would have to wait until the next flight, 30 mins later. Well, Johnny Walker didn't like that one bit and proceeded to hurl such a string of expletives at me that I told him that now, he would be waiting until tomorrow to catch a flight! Somehow, he got it in his head that it would be a good idea to pick up an 8 foot potted palm and throw it over the counter at me, at which I ducked into the back office and told them to 'CALL THE COPS! QUICK!!'. Lucky for me, they only took 15 mins to show up and cart the guy off but during that time I quietly filled out that boarding pass and called Mr. Oro (that means Gold in Spanish) up to the

counter, handed him the pass and ushered him outside to the waiting plane. Naturally he profusely thanked me as he knew I could have gotten PalmTree onto that plane. But it was because of his patience and politeness that got him home that night.
About a week later a letter arrived at the office addressed to me. It turns out he was a jeweler, and he made me a gold necklace with the word 'Lisa' and a tiny diamond dotting the 'i'. I still have the necklace and I never forgot him. It reinforced in me that you can always attract more bees with honey.  And its true!

To see some of my jewelry creations, visit Handmade Jewelry Haven's Etsy Page here.

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