Stranded with Strangers

The Transformative Power of Turning a Negative Situation into a Positive One

“Good things happen when you meet strangers.”

– Yo Yo Ma

When was the last time you found yourself on an unplanned adventure with a group of people you just met?

That happened to me the other day when I was trying get back home. Even though the experience started out as a frustrating and annoying situation, it ended very differently.

I love how travel puts us into situations where we have the opportunity to meet strangers who remind us just how much goodness and kindness there still is…in a world that seems rather determined to indicate otherwise.

As I shared in a recent blog, The Magician, the Accountant & the Origami Maker, I keep finding myself smack dab in the middle of encounters with strangers that are teaching/reminding me of the power of transforming lousy situations into positive ones.

Here’s another one:

After being away from Canada for three months, I was heading home a few days ago. I flew from Sarasota with a short layover in Chicago. All went smoothly…no flight delays. Until I made it to Vancouver. There was no delay there either; the flight to Nanaimo (on Vancouver Island) was boarding on time. I got on the plane for the short flight over to Nanaimo and we were soon up and on our way. I was on the homestretch!

Not quite.

The plane was making a rather long, drawn out descent into the Nanaimo airport and I was waiting for the bump when the wheels hit the tarmac. There was no bump. Instead, the plane suddenly went up again. Uh oh.

The pilot came on the intercom: the visibility (due to fog) wasn’t good enough to land…but they would circle around and try again. But if they were unable to land that time, back to Vancouver we would go. As perhaps you can guess, the second attempt at landing was also unsuccessful. Back to Vancouver we went.

Since it was after 11pm by this point, there would be no more flight attempts that night. So I booked a hotel (on my own dime; the airline wouldn’t pay for my hotel because the weather was beyond their control) then headed outside to wait for the shuttle bus…where I chatted briefly with another stranded (but cheerful) passenger who was waiting for her hotel shuttle.

After four hours sleep, I headed back to the airport for my morning flight. And wouldn’t you know it but the exact same thing happened again. We boarded the plane and flew to Nanaimo but when the pilot tried to land the plane, he was unable to. The visibility was still too poor. The fog was socked in.

Back to Vancouver we went…then we all got off the plane. Our checked baggage, however, stayed on the plane because we would be trying again in a couple of hours.

Well, as perhaps you can guess, that departure time got bumped another two hours. Then another two. As perhaps you can also guess, some of my fellow passengers were getting rather frustrated by this point. In fact, some people had decided to instead take the ferry – right after our plane had returned to Vancouver. How they managed to convince the airline to take their checked luggage off the plane I’m not sure.

But somewhere around 2pm, I realized that taking the ferry was probably a very good idea…if I wanted to get home that day. And I did. We all did. So I got chatting with two people sitting in the row behind me – Evan and Therese – and the three of us (all strangers) started brainstorming about how long to wait before giving up on flying, how best to get to the ferry terminal, etc.

Then our flight was delayed another two hours…and we realized the writing was on the wall. Time to make our way to the ferry terminal. But first we had to try and get our checked luggage off the plane…which, we soon realized, was going to be a challenge because our flight still hadn’t technically been canceled.

Well, one conversation led to another and soon our little group of three grew by one more: Ethan. And then, while we were standing in the customer service line near our departure gate, we brought Cathy into the fold. The plan was for all of us to share an Uber to the ferry terminal.

We stood in that line for an hour…waiting to hear whether or not we would be able to get our luggage. The poor customer service guy couldn’t give us an answer because nobody would tell him the answer. His manager eventually showed up to talk to us…but only after she had been able to get an answer from her supervisors. It was a bit of a circus. At any rate, we were finally told that yes, we would be able to get our checked luggage.

So off the five of us trundled to the baggage carousels. But, of course, none of our suitcases had made it that far yet. And we weren’t entirely convinced they would make it that far because everything was so chaotic. So into luggage services line-up we went to talk to that customer service representative…who had to get on the phone to try and confirm that our luggage would indeed be heading our way at some point.

After about another half hour or so…some of our luggage began appearing on carousel #4. Yay!

Evan and Cathy’s suitcases, however, were nowhere to be found. Back into the customer service line-up they went. And then, low and behold, Evan’s suitcase appeared…on carousel #6.

Alas, still no sign of Cathy’s burgundy bag.

“I’m so sorry to be holding you all up!” said Cathy to the rest of us. “We don’t need to wait for my suitcase. They can just send it to the Nanaimo airport later.”

Nope. We’d all stuck together – with each other and our baggage – this long, we weren’t giving up now! In fact, Ethan was over at carousel #6 at this point, keeping an eye out for Cathy’s suitcase.

“There it is!” yelled Cathy, pointing to her bag…on carousel #4.

Triumphant, we all traipsed outside to wait for the Uber ride that Evan had called.

But when the vehicle showed up, there was only room for four of us. Which is when I spied the woman I had been talking to at the shuttle bus stop the night before. I ran over to get the scoop on her plans. She was waiting for her Uber to arrive…she, too, was headed for the ferry terminal.

“Can I share your Uber?” I asked.

“Sure!”

So we jumped into her Uber and off we went to the ferry terminal…chatting away like old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a long time. Her name was Rachel.

At the ferry terminal, we met up with Evan, Ethan, Cathy & Therese and the six of stood in line together, laughing and chatting like long lost friends.

“I gotta take a picture of us!” I said. “Just in case we want to have a reunion in fifty years!”

Everyone roared with laughter. Which is when I realized that might be tricky…because most of us would be, you know, dead by then😊

Ethan (the youngest in our group) smiled politely and said, “How about we have one in twenty years?”

More roars of laughter. Then we got someone to take our photo.

Then we all got on the ferry and, of course, sat together in the cafeteria, where the chatting and laughter continued as the ferry pulled away. I put everyone’s number into a group chat on my phone, so I could send them the group photo.

After the long line-up for the cafeteria had finally dwindled, Ethan and I went to get dinner…which is when we ran into one of our less-than-cheerful fellow airline passengers. She was angry, exhausted and dropping a few f-bombs to emphasize her frustration with the situation.

“Wow,” I said to Ethan afterwards, “she sure is having a different experience than us.”

“I’ll say! I don’t think she’d fit in very well with our happy little group.”

Nope. For as much as cheerfulness can be contagious, so too can negativity.

After we finished our burgers, Ethan and I went to the outside upper level deck, hoping to see the supermoon. No luck. But…we did end up walking around and around the deck for a good half hour, chatting about life. It was awesome! Then we went back down to the cafeteria and joined the rest of our group. Since the ferry was just about to arrive in Nanaimo, we all made our way to the lower outside deck…still chatting and laughing!

At the ferry terminal, Cathy’s husband picked us up. Turns out they only live 5 minutes away from me in Parksville, so she had kindly offered to give me a ride home.

And so…I finally arrived home – twenty-four hours later than planned.

The fog never did lift that night. But I think that surprisingly joyful experience with strangers energetically shifted something in me…which seemed to help give me clarity on a few things I had been grappling with.

At any rate, over the next few days, the six of us kept in touch through the group chat I’d set up on my phone…just to make sure we all arrived safely at our final destination.

How cool is that?!

Maryanne Pope is the author of “A Widow’s Awakening.” She also writes screenplays, playscripts & blogs. Maryanne is the CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions and Co-Founder of the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund. To receive her blog, “Weekly Words of Wisdom,” please subscribe here. And be sure to visit our PinkGazelleCards Etsy shop.