Travelling alone

I woke up at 7am on Monday morning, the 21st of May. I had a few hours to finish packing, get dressed and head to the office to tie up loose ends before I boarded my flight for the long journey down under. I was waiting for Tahseen to pick me up and drive me downtown when my cell phone rang. It was my dad. "Where are you?" I always hated that question, as he usually knew where I was. "I'm just about to leave dad" I said with a bit of annoyance in my voice. Then there was this pause, the kind of pause that always means that the next thing about to be said will undoubtly be bad news. "You can't leave yet..." his voice trailed off for a few seconds, and then returning to tell me that my great aunt, Chachipasha, had passed away that morning. She has been increasing becoming ill over the last year, but none of us expected that her time would come so soon.

At this point I had a bit of a delimma. If I took my flight at 5pm as planned, I would surely miss the Janaza (Funeral), but I wanted to do both. I decided that I wouldn't make a decision about my trip until I went to the funeral home later that morning. I waited for my mom to get home before heading to the bank to get what I needed for the trip. I must say that I felt an incredible amount of guilt getting my things in order.

Finally, we loaded my moms car with my suitcase and headed to the funeral home. I decided it was best if I did what I could before leaving for New Zealand. I spent the next 3 hours helping prepare Chachipasha's body for the burial. I'd done this once before, when my own aunt passed away about 7 years ago. My responsibility is usually to make sure that the proper rights were being followed, and that no step was over looked. It's a wierd feeling, to wash the body of a grandmother you've seen all your life. To speak of her out loud, as if she wasnt there, and yet here you are, purifying her body for her final journey.

Finally at 3:30 pm, Tahseen drove me to the airport. My parents had been very concerned about my travel to New Zealand, as it would be my first international travel with no companions. But they didn't have time to dwell on it a the moment of my departure.

And then I found myself alone. Standing in line at O'Hare waiting to check in. Standing in line at the security check in. Standing in line at the gate to board the plane. After an hour of standing in various lines, I was finally on the plane to San Francisco, where I would transfer to my flight to Auckland.

The thing I realized about travelling alone, is that eventually we all find ourselves on a solitary journey home.