Since his flight had been cancelled the day before, we went ahead and rescheduled his flight to Dallas to an earlier one to give us a bit of a buffer in case he had the same problem again. This meant that we had to leave a bit earlier in the day, and even though I would have loved to spend every minute possible with him, I also needed to get the whole thing over with at this point. It was too hard. I woke him up with breakfast in bed at a reasonable hour and he had plenty of time to shower, repack a couple things, and get to the airport in plenty of time. We got him checked in and sat and waited outside of security in case anybody came to say goodbye for what seemed like an eternity in some ways and like a blink of an eye in others….kind of like this past year. We finally decided it was time to go to the gate and they had already started boarding. Those last few moments seemed hurried and rushed. I needed the time to say goodbye properly, I couldn’t give him enough hugs, enough advice, enough threats to keep in touch with us and let us know when he got to Madrid. I started crying despite trying to keep the tears in. This was to be expected of course, but I really did try. EB started to tear up when he saw me cry. I got in one last hug and we had to let him go. It was soooo hard. We stood and watched his plane take off before heading to the car.
It was a short flight and soon after we got home from the airport, he sent me a text saying he arrived in Dallas and was gathering his things. Because we had changed his flight to an earlier time, he now had about 4 hours to wait until his flight to Spain. He text me asking about the gate because he didn’t see it on the screen. I replied with the information. He told me he was bored, I asked him if he was ready to come back home to Louisiana. He said he’d like to stay a little bit more….we decided we would both be in big trouble if he didn’t get on his flight.
The time passed and as it was getting time to board, they called his name – someone wanted moved to sit with their family so they were giving him a free upgrade to business class! I would never get that lucky; kind of made up for the fact that his flight was cancelled the day before. He text me a couple more times from the plane. His seat was nice and perhaps he could sleep well on the flight. I sent him one last text telling him goodbye, have a safe flight, we miss you, and there better be a picture of you at the airport in Madrid on my phone when I wake up in the morning! At 3am, my phone chimed – it was him sending me a message that he arrived in Madrid….the tears started again….I couldn’t go back to sleep.