I like being a travel agent. Most of the time it's a very upbeat business to be in. Sending people on vacation is a lot of fun, and I enjoy specializing in leisure travel. Some of my colleagues loathe the amount of research and dithering leisure travel involves, and prefer the cut and dried corporate travel. The one type of travel none of us like talking about is bereavement fares. They're sometimes called Family Emergency fares because some airlines offer last-minute discounts for immediate travel when a family member is hospitalized. Mostly, though, we get the call because someone our client is closely related to has died. It's never fun to take those calls even when the client is bearing up well and has the necessary information ready to go.
I've done four of them this week.
In case you ever need to know this, United has the lowest prices and most flexible rules of this type of fare. Delta's one of the most expensive, as is Northwest. American won't do anything for you unless the family member has passed away; they don't believe in helping out with medical emergencies.
The very worst part is arranging to bring a body home. That makes me want to cry. There are all kinds of rules around that, and I'm not going to go into them, but it is a depressing thing to have to arrange.
My heart goes out to everyone I assist, but it's especially painful to have to do it for someone I know. Unfortunately, this week I had to help two friends make quick trips back east. I try to make it simple, fast, and easy for them; it's all I can do. Then I go to the store to buy sympathy cards, and stand there weeping in the aisle trying to find the right card that isn't religious, or fulsome, or sickeningly sentimental. I hate it, but I think it's important to express my sympathy. I know I have always found it comforting to hear from other people when my loved ones passed on.
So it's been a hard week in more than one way. Too much work, too much school, too much coffee, too much sadness. Friday night I'm going to the gym to work off the difficult week: sweat it out, wear it out. Then I'm going out. I'm having sushi with Trish and Dave in San Jose, delicious, nutrious, non-fattening sushi. I've been eating a lot this week, nothing dire but I'm unable to stop putting food in my mouth. I consider it a triumph that I haven't succumbed to buying candy, potato chips, hamburgers, or pizza because I've been craving them as though they would make everything better.
I may not lose any weight this week. Fine. As long as I'm sticking with the principle of the diet, as long as I don't let cranky people get me riled up for more than a few minutes, as long as I keep plugging away at my schoolwork, as long as I remember that my job is to be there when my clients need me most, I think I can deal with holding steady on the weight loss. Because there's a lot more important things in life than losing the most weight possible each week, or being right, or getting an A.
Every time I arrange a bereavement fare everything takes on a much saner perspective.
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