What a night it was last night!  A night when we really appreciated what we can accomplish with our modern communications technology!

Late last night, I drove my mother to meet a family member that was supposed to arrive shortly after midnight.

Earlier in the day, I had been in contact with his daughter through a messenger app, where she had informed me that his flight left 2 hours late.  We even exchanged photos, so he would know what I looked like, and we would know what he looked like.

Before leaving for the airport, I checked his connecting flight to see that it was running on time.  Not hearing from his daughter to let me know if he missed his connection, we figured he caught his flight and off we went.

Shortly after arriving, she and I started messaging each other.  More photos were shared.

My older brother started texting me.  He and his wife were at the airport as a surprise, and looking for us.

We took a group selfie to send out.

Then I get another message, this time from my sister, who lives in the boonies, much like I do.  She had just received a phone call from our relative.  He had missed his connecting flight, and the airline got him set up for another flight, but not until 8am.  Once we realized he would not be on the flight we were waiting for, we found a place to have some drinks.  My brother started looking up flight information on his phone, while I continued to communicate with both the daughter in Europe, and my sister out of town.

In no time at all, we had all the information we needed, were assured our relative was spending the night in a hotel, and since the new arrival time conflicted with my schedule, arranged alternative transportation.  While all this was going on, I got another message from my husband; unsure if she would reach me, my sister had phoned the land line and let him know about the missed connection and new times, and he was passing it on to me.

Six people.  Two continents.  Two provinces.  Seven time zones.

Gosh, I love technology!

To top it all off, though we missed picking up our family last night, the four of us had a great visit with each other at the airport, and my drive in and out with my mother was absolutely amazing.  She was having one of her good days, which was so wonderful! During the drive back, at 2am, she started telling me things she remembered from her childhood, including a couple of stories from WWII, when her village was taken control of by the Nazis, as part of a strategic route to Russia, the border of which was just a few kilometers from her village at the time.  She was only about 10 yrs old at the time, but she still remembers quite a bit.  She has lived through some pretty amazing experiences, and it was good to hear about some of them.

The Re-Farmer