Unlikely Friends

The One With The Crash

Author's Note: Chandler was always my favorite one of the six. Oct. 28, 2023, the world lost a great icon when Matthew Perry tragically died at his home in LA. 

This is my way of paying tribute to the Chan-Chan Man.

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It's been two years since that Christmas that Finola was born and life had its ups and downs. Phoebe and Mike finally settled and were living in Bucks County and Joey and Rachel bought the house across the street from ours. My mom passed away a few months ago after a battle with cancer and Joey offered to let his dad move in with him and Rach but Joe opted to move in with Rob and me since he figured he could live in our in-law suite and spend time with the daughter he never knew, the son-in-law he adores, and the two grandkids he really wants to be around.

We're doing great. Monica lives on Long Island with Chandler and the kids and they're doing great. I just got home from picking up Rob from the airport after six weeks in Hungary doing a movie and we're just about to settle in when at 2 AM, I hear his phone ring.

"If that's my agent, he can call me later," Rob tells me.

It keeps ringing and I look over to see Monica's name. "Babe, that's not Glenn," I tell him.

He rolls over and sees it's Monica. "This isn't good," he tells me as he goes to answer the phone.

"Mon? What? Oh my God! Where are you? Stanford, Connecticut? No...I'm going to get Janie and we'll be there."

I'm already awake when Rob says to me, "Janie, we need to get to Connecticut."

"Connecticut? What happened?"

"Monica and Chandler were in a train derailment with the kids on the way back to Long Island when..."

I see him pause. "Rob, what happened," I ask.

I see the tear in his eye as he says, "Janie, the twins are gone."

"Oh my God!"

He then says to me, "Chandler's in critical condition."

"Oh no!"

I get up and I start throwing on some clothes when I get a call from Joey. "Janie, I just heard..."

"I know. Rob got a call from Monica. We're driving to Stamford."

I tell my dad what happened and she said he'll get the kids awake and bring them up to us later. "I know you and Rob have to be there for Monica," Joe tells us.

I see Rob zipping down the stairs with his backpack and he's in shock. "I can't believe this," he tells me.

I hand the keys to my car to my dad and tell him to use that when he drives to Stamford since it's got the kids' seats in it. "Get up there, Janie," Dad tells me.

I get in the SUV that Rob just bought and I'm really upset. We look at each other and realize this is going to be one very hard drive but it's one we have to do. Rachel decided to stay at the house with Finola and she was going to drive up with my dad and our kids because she was waiting for Emma who is on her way home from a business trip in Milan so it's just Rob and me with Joey.

"Here's how we'll do it," I tell them. "One of us will drive and if it gets too much, we'll switch off."

"It's a two and a half hour drive," Rob reminds me.

"Okay, let's do it this way: Rob, you drive from here to New Brunswick then Joey can go through New York and when we get to Westchester, I'll take over."

"That sounds like a plan," Joey says.

We go ahead with the plan but the minute we get across the Connecticut state line, we hear Rob's phone ring. He kept it connected to the bluetooth for the GPS and answers it because it's Monica.