Frank. 🇺🇸
I had the most wonderful flight tonight from New Orleans to DC on United. I was in the mood for zoning out and listening to music for 2 hours of peace & quiet after a hectic few days, when this guy in a Hawaiian shirt next to me just started talking. He had just spent the last 7 days or so on a singles cruise out of New Orleans to the Caribbean. He’s in his 70s (from what I can gather).
He told me he went on his first one about 10 years ago and met a woman, and then followed her to Seattle from Boston to get married. They were married for five years when she unfortunately just suddenly died. They were standing on the porch and she said “call 911" they came in 3 minutes, revived her, but she was brain dead. The week before her unexpected death she had bought a dog for him so he would never be lonely. The wife’s name was Jenn. He looked at me and goes, “You're not her reincarnated, are you?!”
Hes got 7 kids, so he returned to Boston. We talked about his time in the military (he was drafted and served in the army in Vietnam) and how he was lucky to be an instructor afterward in Panama city (and about a few of his money making entrepreneurial schemes). After the war he wouldn’t tell anyone he was a vet BC of the brutal treatment soldiers would get. He used his GI Bill to go to American University and then went home to do the only thing he ever wanted to do which was real estate.
We talked about how after he retired he wanted to volunteer 20 hours a week at the VA to just serve food & talk to the guys, but after weeks of filling out forms and their wanting him to provide his driver’s test information from highschool he couldn’t. So they offered him a job instead for $15 an hour. He joked that he got paid pretty well at his volunteer gig BC of government inefficiency.
He told me funny stories about the dead bodies he saw there and how someone got fired for (out of courtesy) putting quarters on someone’s eyelids so they’d stay closed. Also about this guy who was a diabetic who’d keep coming in to have appendages removed. One time he came in and said “Look at this, my fingers are all black” twisted one & it broke off and all they could do was laugh.
We talked about his kids and how all 7 were married but only had 3 grand kids. He joked he did too good a job talking about the birds & the bees. But they were all good kids and only 1 had a tattoo. No one had ever been arrested.
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We talked about the election and I was worried that because he was an older white male and a military vet this might go in a direction I didn’t want it to. Then he started talking about how excited he was for a woman president. We talked endlessly about the need for education after this and he shared a story of a woman he knows who is voting, in Massachusetts, on behalf of her son for Trump. The son believed that electing Trump will result in him being able to get a $100,000 a year job. He is 50 and works at McDonalds in Colorado and doesn’t plan to vote himself, which is why his mom should. She thinks her son deserves this. Frank, my seatmate, thought this was hilariously dumb. He’s in his 70s and will arrive home tonight at 12:45am and has to be at his polling station at 6:30am in Winthrop, Massachusetts on Tuesday to be a warden and make sure everything goes as it should. He is excited to check every ballot and is proud of his ability to make a difference and honor our democracy. He will work until 10pm tomorrow – a 16 hour day where he will have no idea how the election is going until it’s over. Did I mention that he’s in his 70s? I’m 34 and exhausted just thinking about it.
I got up to use the restroom (the bladder of a thimble) and when I came back he goes “I saved this seat for you” and I said “Good! I know it’s in high demand.”
The last bit of our talk was about technology, stemming from my desire that voting & registration was easier, or done online, and he of course assured me that this way while complicated is the best way, and one that really brings a community together. As a community builder, hearing this said to me made my heart swell 10x it’s normal size. We then got talking about phones – he has an LG, and didn’t know that an iPhone was different or that it was the name of Apples phone, but he also had a Kindle fire. He noticed someone else on the plane had used their flashlight app and marveled at how cool that was. So I showed him a few things he could do on his LG and he was excited at the free education he was getting. He begged me not to tell United that he got a bonus perk out of this flight. Last but not least I showed him how to put the flashlight app on his phone to easily use, and then how to turn it off and on. He thanked me for showing how to use something he’s had for a year, but never knew about and said, “Jenn! I’ll always think about you when I use this. You’ll light up my life!”
I’m on my connecting flight now from DC to NYC, and I am so glad I didn’t get my peace & quiet. In fact, on this last hour I’m missing my seat buddy and wish we were still talking. I’ll be thinking of him and how tired he will be on election day, but his experience and outlook on life has inspired me. I hope for his sake, and all vets and people’s lives that depend on us making the right decision, that we do right by him on Tuesday.
Edit: I’m now standing in line to vote, which easily has 200 people in it. I’m doing this in honor of Frank.
#imwithHer
