Open Cockpit For $1

This past week I jumped a plane to Maine. While I was at the Burbank airport sitting at my gate, this kind older lady came barreling up to me and asked if the seat next to me was taken. I told her it wasn’t and I padded the seat lightly with my palm inviting her to sit. She plopped down and immediately began firing off facts about herself.

Her name was Eleanor and she’s ninety-four. She told me I was going to hear all about her life until it was time to board the plane. She didn’t look a day over seventy and she moved quickly and confidently, occasionally making small jabs with her hands to gesture at me. She fixed her eyes on me through her glasses when giving out her stats, sometimes lightly tapping my forearm with her fingertips. Eleanor is a retired school teacher who only stopped teaching two years ago. Yep, she friggin’ taught school until she was ninety-two! That is simply ahhhmazing to me. This flight we were about to take to JFK was Eleanor’s third flight ever. Her first plane ride was ‘quite a long time ago’ in an open cockpit, for the whopping price of $1. That was then; this time she was on a luxury liner with TVs in every seat and on her way to Manhattan to meet her niece and spend a few days. She and her niece were going on a cruise in the Mediterranean. She confessed her love for the outdoors, camping and hiking. I was dazzled by her age and sense of adventure – this is likely what has kept her heart beating for so long.

Eleanor had not even scratched the surface of her ninety-four years, when over the intercom I heard the attendant make an announcement for pre-boarding passengers. She launched from her seat and galloped over to the podium without saying goodbye. When she realized what she had done, I could see how she was torn between boarding the plane and her guilt about not saying proper goodbye. She came running back over to apologize and I told her not to worry and told her to go get her seat and get settled in.

When it was my time to board I gathered my things, got in line and walked the ramp up to the fuselage. I could see Eleanor seated near the front of the plane. As I approached her to get to my seat I stopped and touched her shoulder to acknowledge her again. She told me to come visit her during the flight and I agreed I would once we got up in the air. While in flight I dozed off, read a little bit, listened to some music on my iPOD, and watched my own personal TV. Sadly forgot to chat with Eleanor during the flight.

When we were getting off the plane I was rolling my bag up the jetway and there she was again. She spotted me coming up beside her and she looped her arm inside mine and told me she missed me on the plane. I apologized for not coming to see her. She was walking with a new friend she had made on the plane. They were going to walk to the luggage carousel together. While we three were walking together, she turned to her new friend and pointed at me saying “Look at him!” and then a brief pause “Look at him, isn’t he just the most handsome young man on the plane?” Eleanor’s new friend kindly nodded in agreement.

I don’t get embarrassed too easily. One of the last times I remember getting embarrassed was when I was on vacation at an Inn in Maine a couple summers ago. I was in the pool with my dyke swim uniform on – a sports bra and some board shorts. I went to jump in the pool the sports bra had shifted considerably north from the rush of water hitting my chest as I jumped in. When I got out of the pool to jump in again, several people, including people I didn’t know, parents, children, friends, all got a good quick peep show. I remember getting super embarrassed and having an instant hot flash because of it.

Now, Eleanor’s sweet remarks certainly didn’t have the same effect as the Inn’s pool incident, but I could feel the heat on my neck and cheeks making my face red from her sweet remarks. She went on to say: “If I were a few years younger.. I’d grab hold you!” I laughed with a big smile and reached out again, this time to take her hand and thank her. I told her she was sweet. At that moment when she was saying such nice things, I didn’t have the heart to tell her.. you know, that I was..

already spoken for.

XO, LYMI,
Ian