Hate

 A few weeks toward the middle of November I received a call from Nan. She told me to stop whatever I was doing and get down to Louisiana. If Nan asked me to jump off a bridge I would have said "How High". It was 2009, I was working for an airline so I was fortunate enough to have free flights anywhere in the United States. After a few minutes on the phone Nan said, 'Your sister is sick, you need to get down there and help her daughter she is about to deliver her 4th child. No big deal, you might say. She was nine months pregnant, her husband serving in Afghanistan on his tour of duty. The children were 6 a boy, 4 a girl and 2 a girl. 

My job was to get the house ready for the new baby due within days, get the family to the airport, so she could be with her mother before the baby was born. There were 40 close relatives who were standing by to give assistance once she landed in the Eastern state. That sounds simple.

When I arrived on base my niece was happy to see me. The front room had 8 loads of dirty clothes stacked in front of the washer and dryer. The 2 year old was ALMOST finished potty training. The 4 year old was trying to put a puzzle together, her brother was teasing her, she started crying. I was in the house 5 minutes and took the hand of the 6 year old, put him in his room, sat him in the corner and told him time out for 10 minutes. He screamed at me "I HATE YOU". Dinner was on the table in 30 minutes, the washer was running, we all sat down, but her son refused to eat, he did not want me at the table. He said to his mother, "I HATE HER". He started to cry. Nan called and said, "how is everything down there?" Fine!

The next day we started to get the house ready for her to be gone two months back to the east. We washed all the sheets, towels, also finished the massive laundry pile. It was time to go to the shed, pull out the crib, mattress, all of the pads that buffer the baby from the bars of the crib. I opened the shed door, there was a foot of water from the over flowing creek behind the house. The crib was wood, totally ruined. The mattress for the crib was soaked, the rest of the crib was floating. We were going to the airport in 24 hours. We packed the kids in the car, her son wanted to go to McDonalds, the girls wanted to eat the hot dogs inside Walmart. We did not have time to stop at McDonalds. Her son started screaming "I HATE YOU". We got out of the car heading to the front door of Walmart, her son sat on the ground crying. 

The two girls stared at me wondering what I was going to do. My niece was already in the store heading for baby furniture. The two girls held each others hand and I picked up the boy by the back of his shirt and we all walked into Walmart. The girls had their hotdogs, he refused to eat. He screamed at the top of his voice, "I HATE YOU, I HATE HOTDOGS!"I just smiled and put all three kids in a cart. We caught up with their mother in the baby department. Calmly we pressed our way to the front of the line, paid for the merchandise and left the store.

We assembled the new crib and accessories for the baby they would bring back to the house. The next morning we woke at 4am, piled the sleepy kids in the car, off to the very small airport. My niece and I had two car seats, 3 kids and 3 suitcases. Each child had their back pack with games and snacks. The plane took off at 6am. We landed in Dallas Ft. Worth airport at 8am. DO YOU KNOW HOW BIG THAT AIRPORT IS? Off the plane, we had 45 minutes to get to another terminal and get on the plane to the east coast. My niece was waddling holding a car seat and the hand of the 2 year old. I had a car seat and dragging the 4 year old and 6 year old. We were all running to our plane. We made it in time with a few tears in between bathroom stops. I put them on the plane, I was going home in a different direction. I walked away from three kids buckled into their seats, kissed my niece goodbye and heard as I walked off the plane, "I HATE YOU".

Happy Trails!

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