Southwest Lights a Candle

In the rain, light a candle.

June 8, 2015, and we light a candle in the darkness.  During a torrential downpour, my husband leaves for the airport. It is an unscheduled, unplanned trip. Our foster babies are already in bed, and we envisioned a quiet house and evening together. But that phone call from a Southwest Airlines employee a few hours earlier sets the wheels in motion. I watch my hubby drive out through the pouring rain, knowing he is doing the right thing.

In the darkness

The employee (whose name is David) calls my husband (who goes by Dave) on his cell phone because a woman named Betty gave him Dave’s number. Betty has just flown into Raleigh, NC after visiting her daughter in Texas, arriving at 7:15 PM.  Because of health issues and because she  left her oxygen at home, she has trouble remembering. Her daughter’s phone number and the phone number of the gentleman who promised to be there to pick her up is absent in her mind.  Betty wants Dave to call her daughter in Texas to get the phone number of the gentleman picking her up at the airport.

She can’t remember much, but she knows Dave’s number.  That’s probably because he fixes things at her house. He also moves plants indoors for winter, moves them back out again in the spring, and feeds her dogs while she’s gone. Betty knows Dave, and she knows he will know what to do. He does.

Dave doesn’t have the daughter’s number, so he drives to Betty’s house (yes, it is still raining hard) to get that phone number. He knows how to access her house to get the daughter’s phone number. Betty’s daughter gives Dave the number of the gentleman. Repeated attempts by both Dave and the daughter to contact the person who said he will pick Betty up are fruitless. [An explanation comes the next day. But what happened, and what should have happened are not important for this story.]

Any neighbor can light a candle

During a phone conversation, David (the Southwest employee) offers to meet my husband part way. With a thunder and lightning storm in process, Dave thinks it better to meet at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU). He doesn’t want to try to find a safe place along the road to get his passenger. Finally, at 10 PM, with no contact yet made with the man who is to pick her up, my husband decides there is nothing left to do. He drives the sixty-plus miles to RDU.

When Dave is twenty minutes out, David calls to tell him that his shift is over, and he is “handing” Betty over to another employee, Trish.

“Don’t worry,” he tells my husband, “Trish will watch after her. We won’t leave her alone. She will be safe and secure. When you get to RDU, just ask for Trish.”

When Dave arrives at RDU, he is immediately approached by a lady who asks him, “Are you Dave?”

His affirmative reply leads her to point over to a bench by the door. Betty is stretched out, head on a pillow, fast asleep. She refused to wait inside, so Trish came outside with her, keeping watch. Southwest Airlines provided a pillow and blanket for Betty’s comfort while she waits.

And, before Betty is ready to head home, she wants to use the bathroom.  Trish goes with her so she will not be alone.

Light a candle and pave the way for others

My husband said, “Those two employees couldn’t have been nicer. They acted like this was normal for them, just like a mailman delivering a package to your door. It’s just something they do as part of their job.”

Today, social media is dotted with folks who decry poor customer service.

Someone once said, “It is better to light one little candle than to curse the darkness.” I think it’s time we quit cursing the darkness and light a candle instead.

It’s time we quit saying “It’s not my job” or “That’s not my responsibility.” We must be willing to drive into the night in pouring down rain to rescue a neighbor because we are asked.

It’s time, when our shift is over or we are unable to provide what is needed, that we find someone else to stand in the gap until help arrives. It’s time we stand watch over someone we don’t even know because there is a need and she is a fellow traveler on life’s way.

Today I’m lighting a candle in honor of Southwest employees David and Trish whose cheerful attitude brightened the darkness that night. I light a candle for their willingness to go above and beyond what many folks would be willing to do. The candle flickers and glows, lighting the way for others to follow their example.

In the course of their work day, rather than cursing the person who failed to come as planned, David and Trish each cheerfully lit a candle. They held it high, illuminating by example a better way to work and to serve.

On behalf of Betty, her daughter, and the rest of us: Thank you, David, Trish, and Southwest Airlines.

Thanks for lighting a candle instead of cursing the darkness.

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Note from Gert: This event happened ten years ago. I still think of Southwest with a smile because of David and Trish. Betty continued to live in our community and Dave kept helping her until she moved in with her daughter and later passed away.