I learned some important life lessons yesterday.
I was visiting my parents and catching up on family news with my father when talk turned to a cousin I’m quite close with. He’s younger than me, but has a beautiful wife, three small children and a number of business ventures on the go. As is tradition in our family, he’s also an enthusiastic private pilot.
My cousin is smart, dynamic and a hard worker. But even as dad and I agreed that he deserves every bit of his considerable success, I felt a tiny twinge of jealousy gnaw at my stomach. What a charmed life he’s led, I thought. Some people really have all the luck.
Just a few hours later we got the news.
My cousin’s father-in-law, a man we all consider part of our extended family, was killed yesterday while piloting his small plane in Florida where he was vacationing.
My entire family is reeling in shock. I haven’t yet spoken to my cousin or his wife, who I adore, but my heart breaks for them and their children.
This man lived next door to my cousin and his family in the small community near where I was born and where almost every person, it seems, is related to me in some way. This man was an integral part of the tight-knit gang of local float plane pilots, comprised largely, it seems, of my relatives and of which I am the sole female member.
Along with me and my father and my cousin, this man was one of the pilots who every summer ferry several dozen people in and out of my family fishing camp, accessible only by air, when we spend a weekend together camping, laughing and making music.
I can picture him now by the lake’s shore in the bright sunlight bouncing his baby granddaughter on his knee and watching her daddy fly in with the latest arrivals.
Yes, I learned a few things yesterday.
I learned that flying small planes, this sport I love, that I learned at my father’s knee, that my husband is now learning, that I was proud to introduce to my son, is not a sport to be trifled with.
I learned that fate is cruel and that no one, no matter how charmed they seem, gets through life without their share of pain, misfortune and bad luck.
I learned that the stresses in my life, that seem lately to pile one atop the other, are not nearly as profound as I believed them to be just a few days ago.
