This has been a hard year for my family when it comes to traveling. My brother and his family (three kids and his oldest kid’s spouse) went to Taiwan for Christmas and came back on New Year’s Day. Well, they were supposed to fly back on that day. What happened instead was wild.
They made their flight to Tokyo with ease. Two hours into their flight back to the States, and a man started to get obstreperous towards a crying baby. As in, he wanted to harm the baby. His wife and the flight attendents tried to intervene (it turned out he hadn’t taken his meds), and he bit his wife. They tied him up and turned the plane around. They landed back in Tokyo and were supposed to leave that night. I think? But. If you recall. Tokyo had an earthquake on New Year’s Day. And then a Coast Guard plane crashed into a commuter plane. Everyone in the Coast Guard plane but the pilot died (5 people outside the pilot). No one in the commuter plane died. I heard about it as I was driving back from Cubs. When I got home, I checked my brother’s Facebook page.
By the way, I heard about the first incident because my mother called me after it happened. Not to tell me what happened (though she had to do that, too), but to fret about what to tell my father if he asked if they were back home.
She called me at six-ish in the morning at her time to ask me that! My brother said she asked him as well. He told her to tell our father that they’re still in transit. I said the same thing or that they’re already home. This is the sad thing about dementia–it truly doesn’t matter. He’s not going to remember either way.
My mom claims she can’t lie to him, but I maintain it’s not a lie. He is in transit. Even if he wasn’t moving at the time.
Side note to the side note: My brother asked why my mother seems like she can’t make even the simplest decision. I said that it’s decades of my father whittling away her self-esteem. She has given into him ever since the beginning of their marriage (which she will fully admit), and that’s what abuse does to your brain. You begin to believe what is told to you over and over again.