Strudel Sisters from Minnesota

After the Facial Pain conference in Richmond, Virginia, I drove up to Washington, D.C., where Daniel was flying in to join me. Our plan was for me to check into our Bed and Breakfast, then drop off the car rental and meet him at baggage claim so we could take the subway back to the B&B together. I gave myself lots of time but had no idea that the traffic could be so bad on a Sunday. Daniel’s flight was scheduled to arrive at 5:35 pm and I checked in and connected to the wireless at 5:10. I was convinced I was going to miss him as the traffic in the city was so congested. I sent him a message that he would be able to pick up on his Blackberry after getting off the plane telling him to meet me at the car rental return. Then I jumped in the car and headed in the general direction of Reagan National Airport. Within a few minutes, I was on Rock Creek Parkway and shortly after a sign appeared directing me to I-395 and Reagan. I dropped off the car, ran like OJ Simpson through the airport to get to the Air Canada baggage claim by 5:45. Surely, he’d be there if the flight was on time. The arrival board said it was on time. But nobody I asked who was standing at the carousel had flown in from Toronto.

This is when the MS fatigue hit me. I broke down crying in the terminal. I looked for a sign to help me get back to the car rentals but didn’t see one. There was nobody at the information booth. A man stopped to help me but he was unable to think of a solution other than to go to the Air Canada desk and ask about the flight. I went over but there was a long line . . . I melted down again. I went over to the information desk hoping to find a phone or some way I could get in contact with somebody to help me.

It was at the information booth that three women from Minnesota decided to help me get connected with my husband. They had been in D.C. to demonstrate making their award-winning strudel. The called themselves the Strudel Sisters. One of them let me use her cell phone to leave a message for my husband on his cell phone. Another one gave me a medallion of the Virgin Mary to keep with me. They encouraged me to go over to the Air Canada counter again and that’s when we learned that my husband’s flight had been delayed and had just landed. I breathed a big sigh of relief. As we talked, I told them what Daniel looked like and then proceeded to tell them how much I liked Minnesota, as I visited Minneapolis several time when I lived in Wisconsin. After a few minutes, one of them asked if a man behind me was my husband and yes, it was! He had no idea what I had been going through. We did have a back-up plan which was to meet at the B&B if we didn’t meet up at the airport. But I was reaching a level of exhaustion that would have made it a bit challenging to do it on my own.

As we said good-bye, I learned that they really were sisters, even though they didn’t look that much alike. But I could start to see it in two of them. The third one said that she takes after their father . . . at least I think that’s what she said. I wanted to write about them because it was so reassuring to meet such nice women who decided to ‘take care’ of me when I was in distress. I took their e-mail addresses as I wanted to thank them. I thought it would make a nice blog post. As soon as we left them, I realized I hadn’t taken a photo! So, I googled them and came across some information about them and their trip to D.C. as guests at the embassy of the Republic of Slovenia for the EU Open House.

Thank you, Strudel Sisters — Nadi, Albina, and Rose — for helping me when I needed some friends.