First Call with Grandma
We arrived in Madrid after a 14-hour direct flight on TWA’s 747 airliner, a magnificent aircraft featuring a full bar on the upper deck. As kids, my sister and I were not allowed upstairs, but my father convinced one of the flight attendants to allow us to take a peek at the glorious bar area where my parents indulged in their favorite drink of vermouth and nibbled on freshly prepared snacks.
747 Upper Deck Lounge
This was in the late 60’s so the colors of the furnishings were the traditional avocado green, orange, blue and gold that marked the era.
It was marvelous to see the area, which, to us, looked very elegant, especially given that all passengers back in the 1960s dressed up for air travel. My dad and I had our best suits and ties on and my mother and sister were dressed in their finest dresses, and my mother with her strand of pearls hanging around her neck. After the glimpse of the area, my sister and I walked back downstairs to our coach seats in the main cabin to sleep for the rest of the flight.
Upon arriving at Barajas Airport in Madrid, we were visibly exhausted, but at the same time, really excited to be there, after all this was our first time out of the country. It would turn into a 3-year stint before we returned to the San Francisco Bay Area in California.
After picking up our luggage, we took a taxi to the most elegant hotel in Madrid (at the time), the Plaza Hotel, where we had a double room on one of the top floors. For hours we gazed over the entire city from that balcony’s vantage point. What a wonderous, foreign place!
Before we all went to bed, my father had the hotel operator help him place a call to his mother to let her know that we had arrived safely and that we would travel to Zaragoza by the end of the week to see her. It had been 20 years since my father left his mother to travel to the Americas. And, this would be the first time my sister and I would meet her.
My Father With His Mother
Having been born in California, my sister and I only spoke English, so hearing my grandmother’s high-pitched voice in Spanish was strange, at best. I just remember her speaking so fast and laughing after what seemed every spoken sentence, and my father translated everything for us so that we could understand.
At the end of the week, we booked a driver that drove us the 200 miles to Zaragoza and we finally met our grandmother, Carmen.
A family reunion very long in the making, and very emotional for both my father and grandmother, after all, 20 years is a long time between visits! And for us, a whole other side of the family to now bond with!
We had come full circle in reuniting with my father’s entire family now.
