On A Wing and A Prayer

Imagine….

You are sitting on an airplane travelling to your next destination.  Your seat is in the first-class section.  The flight attendant hands you your hot towel and takes your drink order.  Your meal is on its way.  On the surface, it all seems good.

When the stewardess returns, she cannot help but inquire about the empty seat next to you.  It is supposed to be the seat of your beloved spouse, but he/she is not with you.  “Why?”.   In this instance, it is a she that is not there because she, your wife, has recently passed away from an aggressive form of breast cancer.  You were married for forty years…laughing, crying, living every minute of those forty years together.  Now, she’s gone.  Two become one.

Rewind to a few months earlier…

Your life-long dream to win the Lotto has come true.  IT has really happened!  You can hardly believe it.  You and your wife are the proud owner of Millions of dollars which you can spend any way you wish. You think that it’s everything that you could have EVER wanted and more.  LIFE is more than really good!!  And then…one month later, your wife is diagnosed with breast cancer.  You are hopeful, but soon hope becomes despair and you are both faced with the WORST possible prognosis.  Death.  ‘How?  What?’ is all that you can bear to think.  ‘It’s just not fair!!!’.

Back to the airplane….

The flight attendant shares your grief, as she has shared with you that she, too, has breast cancer and is fighting her own battle.  You tell her your story of the good fortune that was bestowed unto you and your wife UNTIL…. You cannot finish your sentence.  You both stare at the empty seat.  It becomes very real all over again.  Too real.  You tell your new friend that you would trade it all in, EVERY PENNY OF IT, if you could just have your wife back.  NO amount of money or things can replace HER.  The millions you once dreamed of mean ABSOLUTELY nothing for now, you have no one to share them with.  Your first class ticket means nothing.  You are on the plane to nowhere, until it dawns on you…‘Do airplanes travel to heaven?’.  Maybe the saying, ‘On a wing and a prayer’ is exactly that.  Your lips take on the shape of a slight smile….NOW, you have a new dream.

 

Advertisement