David’s Birthday Weekend In PA: The Recap

The weekend of May 29-31 was, in a word, BRILLIANT. All missions were accomplished, and then some. (Makes me want to pun the title: The ReCAP.)

Thursday: arrived at Helma’s, was fed heartily (as always!)
Friday: met with Executor, picked up David’s flight bag, went to Mona’s house
Saturday: went to temple for David’s yizkor, lunch with Helma, then Mona’s house for birthday dinner
Sunday: went flying with Alan, Helma’s house, then Mona’s before driving home

I originally wanted to fly on Friday, but the weather was pretty foul so I opted for an impromptu meeting with the Executor. To have David’s flight bag back and finally wear our headsets again was a great feeling! It seems a bit silly to get attached to something as nondescript as a headset, but if you’ve been reading this website for more than a few years you’ll have seen the scores of flying photos and videoclips I shot with us squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder in our little Tri-Pacer cockpit, David wearing his light green David Clarks and me wearing my Red Barons. These are very fond memories for me, and just seeing that bag again triggered the anticipation of flying adventures and made my heart leap a little.

But my main purpose of this particular birthday trip, 42 years after David entered this world, was to visit his mother. We spent most of three days together, talking about David as a baby, a little boy, his childhood, bar mitzvah, all the way through school, college, married life, learning to fly, Civil Air Patrol, working life, our lives together, and his last days. Mona filled blanks for me, and I filled in blanks for her. It was dizzying how much we covered in one weekend, but I’m convinced this was the best thing that could’ve happened on May 30, 2009.

I went to Temple Israel on Saturday and attended the entire service, from beginning to end. There were three items on the agenda: David’s birthday, yizkor, and shavuot. When I arrived I sat at the back, and the rabbi — in mid-service — came all the way down from the front and greeted me. I have to say, this really made an impression! The rabbi and I last met in 2005, at Mercy Hospital and the hospice, and he remembered me.

I took away many ideas from that service, but perhaps the one that stood out the most was that of celebrating the life of the person(s) we’ve lost. 

In keeping with that sentiment, I went to the grocery store on Saturday to pick up some of David’s favourite food, and that’s what we had for his birthday dinner. David’s tastes ran a little to the unhealthy side (corn dogs, etc.) and I tried to balance it out with salad and fruit. I could’ve bought more food, but we could only eat so much in one sitting, so I purchased some in frozen form for Mona to eat later.

(Click on the pic to see the notes in Flickr): chicken wings, potato pancakes, soft pretzels, vidalia onion vinaigrette, corn dogs, key lime fruit bars and…

… the pièce de résistance: David’s favourite key lime pie.

I tried to see if the store would sell me half, but I had to get the whole thing. It’s a lot of pie! But Mona agreed: it was yummy — not too sweet, not too tart.

Mona bought a new TV a few years ago and nobody hooked up her VCR. She thought it was broken and never watched the memorial tape I sent her until I plugged in the VCR on Sunday. I escaped to the kitchen after I came on the screen but eventually I watched it (I still feel weird watching a recording of myself speak). I showed her who everyone was and told her how the memorial unfolded. This went on until about 3 o’clock in the morning, when my eyelids and limbs and head became so heavy I lay down on the couch. I had no energy left to drive the five minutes it would’ve taken to return to Helma’s house and I lay there, in the same outfit, fast asleep for four hours…

… until 7 o’clock when Mona woke me up to tell me that Alan was going flying! I was so completely disoriented — where am I and why am I wearing a skirt? — it took me a couple of seconds to realise IT WAS TIME TO GO FLYING! Helma knew how much I wanted to fly and tracked down Mona’s phone number, passed it on to Alan, he phoned Mona, and she woke me up!

I grabbed my wallet and shot out the door to Helma’s house to change out of the skirt and into pants (the configuration of Alan’s plane and where the stick is located in the back seat is not skirt-friendly!), and made my way to Cherry Ridge Airport to meet Alan. It was a fabulously sunny day and my timing couldn’t have been better: as soon as I arrived and walked toward the runway, Alan landed his plane right in front of me. Another funny coincidence was when I was talking to Alan after he deplaned: a pilot I flew with several years ago — and hadn’t seen since — taxied right by us to the fuel pump. I walked over to say hello, and he told me just last Thursday a friend saw a YouTube video of him flying (with me). I had just shown Mona those same videos the night before, and here he was, fuelling his plane! [Video 1, Video 2]

Alan and I got ready for takeoff, I put on David’s headset, and away we went! We flew over Lake Wallenpaupack and over to Mount Pocono Municipal Airport for a pitstop. Mount Pocono is the airport where I met Alan for the first time that memorable weekend in October 2004. He and another Civil Air Patrol pilot, Dale, were there with the CAP plane when David and I landed and we all had lunch together. Thanks to Alan I’ve been able to fly in a Piper on David’s birthday two years in a row now. (I also scattered David’s ashes from a Piper Super Cub — Stanley Segalla’s.) Maybe by next year Alan will have his helicopter license and I can fly over the valley like I did the first time.

The crazy crosswind landing is written up in the previous post: If I Were The Pope I Would’ve Kissed The Ground. It’s those sorts of landings that don’t allow us to take the science of flying for granted.

After Alan and I landed safely, I drove to Helma’s to fetch my things, had a shower and a long nap, and made one more stop at Mona’s house. I ended up staying at Mona’s until 1am late Sunday night, when I couldn’t delay my departure any longer since the drive back to Toronto takes at least six hours and it was my first day of work at the new company on Monday. (I’m always right to the wire, I know…)

It’s taken me more than a week to write about it, but I’m pleased to declare that I completed all the missions I’d lined up for David’s birthday, and the weekend exceeded all my expectations! Many thanks to the three people who made the weekend possible: Helma, Mona, and Alan.

Possibly related posts:

1. David’s Weekend in Vancouver: Joint Birthday Bash Sunday, May 29 On Sunday morning, David and Dad and I went over to Allan and Cheryl’s house to celebrate...
2. David’s Weekend in Vancouver: Happy Birthday George! Well, it’s only taken me a week to post this, but life has a way of getting in the way...
3. NYC Recap: Hudson Hotel glow of the city wash from the bathroom My cousin who lives in upstate New York is moving to California...
4. Recap: Sting! -> Philadelphia Airport -> Seattle 10:49pm EST35,000 fthalfway between Philadelphia and Seattle The last couple of days have been kinda hectic, hence the silence. I...
5. Weekend Postmortem So, how was your weekend? I think I need a weekend from the weekend, if you know what I mean....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.