Going Home. . .

While pulling up yahoo's homepage to find an article this afternoon, I saw a story about a hero pilot. My brother is a pilot, so I'm always interested to read stories that have anything to do with planes, so I clicked on the link. Several minutes later, I broke down while trying to read the story to my mom and brother.

The brief version goes like this: there was a couple, Nancy and Mark, whose grandson had been tragically murdered by their daughter's live-in boyfriend. He was being taken off life support at 9 pm that evening. Mark was able to get a flight from LA to Tucson, where he was going to step off one plane and on to another, headed for Denver to see his grandson in his last moments. Mark arrived at LAX 2 hours before departure time, but because of security and delays at baggage check, he realized he was not going to make his flight. He pleaded with TSA staff and Southwest Airlines staff to fast-track him, but nobody seemed to care. When he cleared security minutes after the scheduled departure, he grabbed his belongings and ran in his socks down to his terminal. "The pilot and the gate agent were waiting for him. "Are you Mark? We held the plane for you and we're so sorry about the loss of your grandson," the pilot reportedly said. "They can't go anywhere without me and I wasn't going anywhere without you. Now relax. We'll get you there. And again, I'm so sorry.""

Adams writes that many passengers that day were probably frustrated at the 12-minute delay. And yet Southwest Airlines said they were "proud" of their pilot, a man who clearly understands that taking a child off life support has consequences that run deeper than a flight taking off late. You can read the whole story by clicking here.

This has been a very sad week. An innocent not-quite-4-month-old baby girl was taken off life support Sunday evening and her family and friends are hurting. There are no answers to the questions. There are no reasons and no one should even try to explain such a tragedy. All we can do is cry with those who cry and remember that one day. . .all of these horrible things will be over and we'll be going home.