I haven't attended in some time because I have another conference that I have to attend just two weeks before and I don't like leaving Tina home alone with Amanda with such a short turn around. There has to be a little recovery time. But this year I had had enough of leaving them or not going, so I took them with me.
Amanda has never flown before, but we have talked about it for years. We took her push chair, an oversized stroller with a weight capacity of 130 lbs. Amanda doesn't walk long distances, handle crowds, or new places well so the chair worked perfectly.
American Airlines was great host. We boarded first, the push chair was gate checked and when we deplaned it was even set up for us. The gate agent in Atlanta, because everyone has to go through Atlanta if they are east of Phoenix, was the best of the best. She didn't like the row we were on, 20, and moved us up to bulkhead. With that position we didn't even have to wait for the rest of the passengers to deplane.
Other people who made the flights easy were TSA who gave Amanda a pat down instead of requiring her to stand in line and walk through the metal detector, and the waiter at TGI Fridays who gave me a dozen straws because it was the one thing we forgot to pack.
Amanda loved flying. She is small enough where the seats are comfortable and she likes the big cookies that AA "sells" on the plane. I say sell, because the attendants liked Amanda so much they were comped.
Amanda used a restroom on an MD-80. The smallest restroom known to the western world. She sat down by me afterward and said she was "so nervous bout dat." On the return flights she said she didn't trust them and would just wait.
Her best moment was when we were waiting on the tarmac at DFW for about an hour for a storm to move through. Amanda announced, "This sucks." I agreed but corrected her vocabulary, but I think she said it because she was reading my mind.
While we were at the resort Amanda had pancakes every morning which she thought was awesome. She also attended three dinner parties. The highlight was when she helped present the award named for my grandfather. It was announced that this was Amanda's first conference and she had plenty of business cards. After the dinner more than two dozen company presidents asked to exchange cards with her. She shook their hands and thanked them. It was indeed inspiring.
I'm aware that people will play favorites for various reasons. That not all actions are fair. But what I am thankful for is that if people in general are going to show great acts of kinds even on a limited basis, at least they show it towards people like Amanda. People who do not posses the skills or abilities to take care of themselves in even some of the most basic ways that us so called normal people take for granted, like walking, drinking proficiently from a cup, or making conversation in a crowd. Small efforts by us norms make for the best days for those like my dear one and because of that I no longer feel the apprehension of showing Amanda what is beyond the border of her town.
