My Once in a Lifetime Experience with Sky Bus Airlines

Why is it that we only get together for weddings and funerals?

My brother called. He owns a restaurant in a nearby town and he was the one that said, "We gotta go.". Out of the three of us, I was in the best position to go as my daughter was grown, I had vacation time, and I was in a fairly decent financial position. My brother and sister didn't have vacation time, they were tight on cash and they had little kids they had to worry about.

But we decided we would try. I started making phone calls as soon as I got up on my birthday to a) send a fruit basket from all of us to my aunt's house and b) to see what was available in the next few days in terms of travel arrangements.

During the day, I got a call both from my brother and sister explaining the only way that they could possibly make this happen would be if my aunt decided to have the funeral on Wednesday. My mom called shortly thereafter and said Aunt Linda was making the arrangements for the funeral for Wednesday. We were heart broken to have heard my cousin died, but we were excited that we would be able to go to show our family support.

My brother and sister said they could each afford about $250.00 for a round trip. Honestly, I thought we would be best getting a car and driving the distance but it would have been exhausting and really pushing it.

Somehow I found a fare with Sky west, a hotel and a car, and with the totals, the costs ended up being $249.00, for each of us.

My brother's wife agreed to help shuffle my sister's kids around and my husband was happy to drop us off and pick us up from Westover Air Force Base, in Chicopee, MA which is where this little obscure airline was flying out of.

We kids had never taken a trip together as adults, and somehow, even though we made this trip, I think we still haven't.

We regressed into our childhood as soon as the plane took flight. We were talking about hijackings which isn't a good thing to do on a plane. I noticed the guy across the aisle from us watching us, but he wasn't afraid. He got as much of a chuckle out of my brother's reaction when I pushed the button that made his seat go back without him knowing what I was doing, as I did.

All I can say is it is a good thing my brother had his seat belt on, or he would have hit the ceiling his body jerked so bad when I pushed that button and made his seat recline. I guess he thought we were crashing for a second. He screamed and I laughed.

When we got to the airport and found our car, thankfully my brother's cell phone had GPS. We used that thing a lot on this world wind trip. After checking into the hotel we found a local bar and had a few drinks and played some pool.

Despite the sadness of our circumstances, we had never gone out like that before, and it felt good. We didn't want the evening to end. We toasted our cousin Brandee who had died of complications from gastro-intestinal bypass surgery, and then we went back to the hotel for a few hours of rest before having to get up at 4:00 to start our drive to Kentucky.

We had about 400 miles to drive and had to be at the church by 1:00 pm. We thought we would be there by 12:00 but the trip was longer than we thought. Thankfully the GPS got us most of the way, and we met everyone at the church as the opening hymn played.

We were in the second row, with the rest of the family. My parents had driven in from Florida. Some cousins from Massachusetts were there. We picked up the hymnals but the tears were flowing from the moment we walked in.

The alter was decorated with flowers and a beautiful collage of pictures of my cousin, who in her short life of 30 years brought joy and laughter everywhere she went.

We never know when our time will end on this earth but to be attending her funeral seemed so wrong. She was young and had so much to live for, and I felt like I was at a point in my life where I was on the back end. I wished it could have been me instead of her.

After mass we went to the church reception area and shared some food with our family and my cousin's neighbors and friends. My brother, sister and I split up and went and visited with our cousins while we ate. Twenty minutes into it my sister said we should probably go based upon the ride we had had down.

We kissed everyone goodbye and lamented that it shouldn't be just weddings and funerals that we get together. My aunt was very appreciative that we had flown in. We told her that we couldn't have missed it, we were family, and that's what families do for each other, just be there.

We drove like lightning back to Columbus, Ohio where we had exactly 5 minutes to catch our flight. We got banged hard for gas returning the car on empty, but as we were running across the terminal together, I didn't care. We had made the flight and we started to board the plane. The same guy that was on the outbound trip sat across from us on the inbound one. I felt sure he was a marshall but I didn't see a gun. He said he liked to fly and that was all he shared with us, though he laughed at our antics just the same.

The next day, the airline, SkyBus announced they were closing. Our trip home had been their last day in service. If it had happened the day prior, we would have been stranded. If it had happened two days prior, we wouldn't have been able to make the funeral due to costs and time constraints.

It was remarkable and maybe even a minor miracle, how everything on that trip worked like clockwork. So many things that could have gone wrong, didn't.

It was like my cousin Brandee was with us that whole trip, guiding us, laughing with us, and making sure we knew how important family really is. With her death, my siblings and I have become closer. It's not fair that she died; one minute she was here and the next she was gone. But in honor of her life, and because of Skybus, I no longer take for granted the moments that I do have to share my love of life with my family. Every moment counts; life is precious.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100305/AUTO01/3050339/1148/rss25/Investigators-build-supplier-antitrust-case

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100305/AUTO01/3050339/1148/rss25/Investigators-build-supplier-antitrust-case#ixzz0hNVLY9iW