and they even brought me home a blanket

it was just like a scene from a movie. my brother and i walked into the domestic arrivals at yvr and stopped to figure out which luggage carousel we should go to. from behind us we hear a familiar, piercing whistle and, elated, turn to see my mom waving us down. already running, i start to cry and when we reach them i jump into my mom's arms and hear her crying and see my father behind us, crying. this is the third time in my 28 years of life that i have ever seen my father cry. it makes me cry more. everyone in the airport has stopped and is grinning and "awww"ing and some people's eyes even glistened. after a huge, relieving hug, i pull away from my mom and finally notice she's proudly sporting a tshirt that says:

"i survived hurricane wilma - hurrican-cun - october 2005"

i laugh as i turn to my dad for a giant sobbing embrace, he's bawling, i have never seen my dad full-on bawl.

i finally got my folks back and we took them home and they told us stories of wreckage and floods, lord of the flies-type heirarchies forming in shelters after 5 nights on flooded concrete beds, the incessant whistling winds, people losing sanity, massive resort pools swept out to sea, alligators and mexican kindness and dysentery, curfews and military, food rations, and the fear that they wouldn't get out before tropical storm beta hit mexico.

and they told us how worried they were about their american friends who seemed to have been forgotten by their government, as british, canadian, portuguese and aussie tourists left cancun in droves, a lot of americans watched and waited with fear and a growing impatience.

after we were all caught up, my mom pulled out a colorful mexican blanket. prior to them leaving my folks had asked what i wanted them to bring back, and i'm kind of a blanket hoarder, so i always ask for a mexican blanket. i didn't expect them to have had time to get any souvenirs for anyone, but there it was. "i hope this is alright," she said.

it's perfect mom, cause it came home with you.

posted by Courtney at 2:46 p.m.

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