During his Celebration of Life ceremony, and after more than 30 years, we got back together on stage to perform a few songs in memory of our friend and bandmate, Jon. Pictured are Mark, Dave, Jon’s son Alex and I, with the guitar the flight crew of Delta Airlines Flight 2243 took under their wings to bring home safely. Paula Traphagen photo.
The time to leave Jon’s Mom’s house for the airport was 6:30 a.m. No later. Minneapolis has a busy airport, and the lines for security tend to be long. And the airport itself is large and very spread out. Getting to any given gate can be a marathon effort.
At 6:45 a.m. we were still talking about Jon. My best friend. By 7 a.m., I really had to leave, but it was extremely difficult to do so.
“I don’t know how to thank you for coming here,” she said while giving me a goodbye hug.
“I don’t know how to thank you for having Jon,” I said to her, with another hug.
She stood in her driveway waving while I drove off in the rental car. My Mom did the same thing when she was still with us.
Big corporations don’t always get the best press … and big airlines in particular appear to have trouble with that. It seems everyone has many complaints but little praise for modern air travel. And that just becomes part of a blanket “Big Companies are Evil” mantra.
But sometimes, perhaps often, it is the people in the corporations that bring the humanity, the heart, up front and center. After all, it is people who run them and who work at them.
Delta Airlines is a case in point.
I picked up a guitar in Minneapolis to play at my friend’s Celebration of Life ceremony last week. More than three decades ago, Jon and I, along with friends Dave and Mark, formed a rock band. Thirty years later, the remaining three of us got back together on stage. The guitar I had purchased, in memory of my friend, immediately had some serious sentimental value.
My flight home to Tampa was on Delta. I asked my wife if she could try to get in touch with someone, anyone, at the company to ask for suggestions on how best to get the guitar home without damage. I knew it would not be possible to check it as regular baggage, which meant carrying it on. Which meant that I might not find room for it. Which meant that it could end up being gate-checked and put into the baggage hold after all.
The agent Michelle talked to was very nice. He first went through the airline rules (Delta tries to be very accommodating with musical instruments) and then made changes to my ticket to increase my chances of finding space for it. He also suggested asking the flight attendants for help.
Running late, I arrived at the gate with 10 minutes to spare, a sweaty mess. Another friend would have described me as “rode hard and put away wet.” In other words, I didn’t cut an impressive figure. But two flight attendants for my flight were waiting to board, so I approached them to ask for their suggestions. I told them why the guitar had sentimental value and, after expressing their sympathies, they thought it should probably fit into the overhead compartments. The gate agent overheard them and mentioned that the flight was full, so there may not be space to store it safely in the overheads.
Guitars have always been a part of both Jon’s life and mine. We would meet at a hotel in our old hometown, rent a couple of rooms and jam through headphones. The guitar I used during his ceremony suddenly became very valuable to me. Delta took care of it, carrying it and me home safely.
The flight attendants then told me to board early and they’d take care of the guitar and ensure it would be safe. I did. And they did.
Delta is a huge company, flying millions of people all over the world. On any given flight, the crews have no doubt seen and heard everything, from the sad to the insane. Yet Delta customer service did everything they could to make sure I could get aboard and ensure the guitar could be stowed. And despite a completely full plane, the entire crew of Flight 2243 from Minneapolis to Tampa went out of its way to make certain that guitar would travel home safely and respectfully. Seriously — the entire crew. They went out of their way for one person on a plane full of people. I can only imagine that they went out of their way for others in need of help on that flight as well.
When I stepped aboard, a flight attendant, not one of the two I had spoken with earlier, appeared to be waiting for me. She gently took my guitar and carefully placed it in the back of a locker. Upon landing, yet another flight attendant was waiting up front with the guitar. I choked out the words “thank you so much” and with tears welling up in my eyes, carried my guitar down the jetway toward home.
If the face of Delta Airlines, a gigantic corporation, is the faces of the wonderful crew on that flight, the company is not only very fortunate, their actions have resulted in gaining a loyal customer.
Sure, corporations are big and can appear heartless. But the bottom line is that people … thinking, caring, compassionate people, make up those corporations. I was so fortunate to meet them on Delta Flight 2243 on May 17, 2015.
I lost my oldest, best friend. People I didn’t know, had never met before, stepped up and helped to carry me — and my guitar — home at a time when some help was so very appreciated. I am grateful beyond words.
P.S. Jon was an organ donor. Two weeks ago, at least eight people found new hope in life, thanks to him — from a man receiving a new heart to a woman gaining Jon’s gift of sight. For more information, visit www.lifesource.org.
