A story but not of my making

My Aunt who lives in Gore came to visit my mother who lives in Palmerston North. My Aunt was also travelling with a mutual friend called P, to visit my mum. The quickest way to go from one island to the other is to fly of course so the following is a story about my aunt and friend going to the airport to catch the plane from Invercargil.

My Aunt is well known in my family for the old adage “if its going to go wrong it will happen to her”. But this time she was the one to stand by and watch as another person was thrown into a total panic when she tried to catch the flight to Palmerston North.

They arrived at the airport half an hour earlier than they needed to. They unpacked their bags from the car and waved P’s hubby goodbye as he drove off. They proudly stood at the counter and announced their intention to catch the plane when they were then told to show their ID. It was at this point that P realised she left her purse in hubby’s car and she had no ID or money on her at all. To the astonishment of my Aunt, P then whirled around and asked for $20 and then threw all her energies into running outside and jumping into a Taxi and says, “follow that car” as she could still see hubby’s car just in the distance. So off they sped leaving Aunt to stand there gob smacked and panicking about P getting back in time to catch the plane.

Now Invercargil although a city is not that big really. Apparently P’s taxi could have almost caught up to hubby’s car if it had not had to stop at some lights upon which P let out a rather expletive remark to the shock of the taxi driver. I mean she is a 70 year old woman who looks like she should be your grandmother and a lady to boot! So after losing sight of hubby’s car she told the taxi driver to take her back to her house hoping that hubby had not taken a detour and had gone straight home. But apparently he wasn’t there which threw her into and even more frenzied panic until she realised that he had said he might go to the library. To the library young man!! They got to the library and P rushed inside and spotted poor unsuspecting hubby standing in line to check his books out. P rushes up and demands he immediately put down his books and takes her to the car as she has left her purse there. They run out of the library and around the back to the car. The taxi drive having now caught up on the moment follows her around the back and waits for her to retrieve her purse. Then it was back into the taxi and the rush was on to get back to the plane. Leaving poor hubby standing by his car wondering why he didn’t drive her back!

Meanwhile back at the airport terminal there stood my aunt anxiously looking at the time as the departure time got closer and closer. The guy behind the counter must have been beginning to worry as well as he was making such helpful remarks like “would be a shame to miss this flight as these are pretty good tickets”. Meaning you miss this flight and you’ll have to buy new tickets as these ones were dirt-cheap and you can’t change them.

Finally P arrives back, still in a panic offering the taxi driver the $20 she had taken from Aunt and saying give me your address and I will post you the rest of the money, and then realised she had her purse and could pay the poor man.

So finally ID in hand they rush to the counter to book in to be told “don’t worry about your ID we need to get you boarded on the plane”! (If it had been me at this point I think I would have just cried with shear frustration!). Tickets in hand the two old ladies rush as fast as they can which isn’t fast at all as my Aunt has wonkey knees and can’t move faster than a casual walk and make their way to the boarding area. They rush up the gangway and reach the plane panting and puffing to find that nobody else was on the plane! Everyone else was still in the waiting area waiting for the announcement to board the plane.

Now my brother and I had tears running down our faces when we were told this story and somehow its probably one of those stories upon which you have to be there or know the people who are telling it, but I hope that somewhere in this you will find a laugh.