Institutionalized: 1940

Organizing a Trip to Europe

A few weeks have passed since seeing our friends. These passed few weeks have been quiet and relaxing.

It just stopped being relaxing after Greg told me that he has a surprise for me . The surprise was that we are going to take a trip in the new year to Europe. I am a bit shocked about this because we do not have the money to go to Europe. I told Greg my concern about how would we afford this trip. All he told me was that he had it under control. I trust that Greg has a plan up his sleeve.

A few days later, we receive a letter from Dario. In the letter, Dario tells us that he would gladly help us with the cost of the flight to England. He also told us that he would be in Scotland the same time Greg planned our trip to England. Dario also invited us to go to Scotland to stay with him while Greg and I are visitinng the United Kingdom.greg also received a letter from Max. In Max's letter, he said that he would be in Italy when we will be in England. He also offered to pay for the flight to Italy and be our host. I wrote replies to Dario's and Max's letters by thanking them for theit kindness and accepting their offers.

While planning the first part of our European trip which is in the United Kingdom, Greg says that he is organizing something special for me. I wonder what it is. Greg would not tell me all he said was that he would not tell me until we were in England next year. I do not know if I can wait that long to find out what Greg's surprise is. We plan to go in the fall. This time will be when the racing season is over. Also Max and Dario will be wanting to relax after a long racing season. We have great friendsto help us organize a trip that will cost a lot of money that we do not have. It will be the first time Greg and I will be flying in an air plane. All the trips Greg and I have had since coming to Canada nearly fifteen years ago were by train.

All this planning is making me think of my mum. I have not seen her since Greg and my weedingin 1949. it has been eleven years since I saw her. I really miss her. She is the only family I have in England. Greg's family has treated me like family, but I am the only one with an English accent. I never lost that link to my homeland. I am glad because it is part of my nature. Greg always tells me that my accent makes me the unique person I am.

Back to planning the trip after me detour of my emotions. I wonder what Dario has in store for Greg and I and why he wanted us to come to Scotland. I wonder the same about why Max wanted us to come to Italy.

A few days have passed since receiving Dario's and Max's letters. We received replies from both of them. They both said that they would write back to tell us the details of our flights to England and Italy. They also reminded us to make sure our passports were up to dateand not expired.

The trip is over a year away, but it is better to prepare the essential documentsin advanceto prevent any problems close to the day of our trip.

It is now the new year. We are slowly getting ourselves for our trip this fall. We received letters from Dario and Max notifying us that they purchased our tickets to England and Italy. Dario also told us the day we leave for England and will remind us about it throughout the coming months. I am getting excited to go back to England after so many years in Canada. When I left England, they were recovering from the devastating war. I hope it went back to being as beautiful as I remember before the war.

Greg and I survived the cold winter. Now it is spring and one season closer to our trip. It is almost time for our birthdays again. We are just happy for the warmer weather has returned. We are three months away from seeing our friends again during race weekend in Vancouver.

Three months have passed. It is race weekend in Vancouver once again. We will be seeing our friends again before our trip this fall. Dario and Max will give us the final details of our trip. Ric picked us up as usual on race day. We watched the race and enjoyed celebrating our friends' win . Once again, one of our friends dedicated his win to Greg like every year. After the celebration, Dario and Max discussed the flight arrangements they had made for us.dario told us that our flight was on October 20, which was a week after the racing season ends. He gave us our tickets and I put them in my purse. Max gave us the tickets for the flight to Italy. I put those tickets in a separate area, so I did not mix the tickets up. Once Greg and I returned from the track, I first to the tickets to England out of my purse and into an envalope labeled England. I did the same for the tickets to Italy. I put both envalopes in a drawer in my dresser, so they do not get misplaced.

We leave for England in three months. I am getting excited to be going home. We are slowly getting organized for our trip. We went to the passport office to reissue our passports. We will get our passports in the mail in a week or so. I also asked Greg to call his dad to ask him to take care of Ryliegh for us while we are Europe.

Summer has turned to fall. It is time for Greg and I to pack for out trip. We leave for England in three weeks. This will be by far the longest trip Greg and I have ever taken. We pack our clothes that we want to pack for our trip. We decide to pack our suitcases now, so we do not forget to do it in the crazy time of getting ready for our trip. I also tell Greg to call his dad to remind him about looking after Ryliegh while we are gone.

We leave for England in a week. We got the last minute items organized. Ric will get Ryliegh in a few days. It looks like Ryliegh can sense that Greg and I will be gone for awhile because the way he meows at Greg and I when we get his things packed up and his cage ready to carry him in to Ric's car. I am sure that he will miss us as much as we will miss him. Ric will pick Ryliegh up in two days. Ric is getting Ryliegh a few days early, so we have time to get the last minute items finalized. We also asked Ric to drive us to the airport. Our flight is in the afternoon. That means we will arrive in England in the early the next morning. Our flight takes nine hours.

Today is the day Ric is picking us up to take us to the airport. Our flight is at six o'clock, but we will be at the airport early enough to get checked in and through airport security. Once arriving at the airport, Ric grabbed our suitcases from the trunk. Greg and I are on our way to baggage check. We did not have to wait long to check in our suitcases. Next we headed to airport security.

On our way to airport security, we decided to buy a little something from Canada for my mum if I get a chance to see her again. After buying the souvenir, we made our way to airport security.

Once at airport security, we had to put our carry on luggage in a tub to be scanned. Greg and I also had to go through our own security check. We went through a metal detector.

After all was clear, we headed to our gate to wait for our flight to be announced. We have been waiting for two hours now. There were announcements on the PA system announcing flight after flight. A few more hours have passed, finally there was an announcement about our flight. The announcement stated that our flight would be arriving in thirty minutes. Greg and I got our passports and boarding passes ready to board the flight. We also got our carry on luggage ready to take on the flight. The announcement came that our flight has arrived. They also asked for those who are physically challenged and seniors to board the plane first. Greg and I got our belongings and headed towards the plane. Greg was holding on to me because I was unstable on my feet. We showed our passes and passports and boarded the plane.

Once we boarded the plane, we found our seats and settled in for the long flight to England. Before we took off to England, there was a safety talk of what we must do in case of an emergency. When one of the flight attentants mentioned crashing, Greg turned to me. He had a look on his face of pure horror. Then I realized that Greg has not been on a plane since the war. I tried to calm him before we took off to England. He was having a panic attack because he had a flashback of being shot down. I asked for assistant to help calm him before we were off to England. The flight attendant insured him that the plane was safe, he calmed down. After that bump in our trip was resolved, we were on our way to England.