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I needed to get from New Jersey to Florida quickly because my brother was gravely ill. I booked a flight on Eastwind Airlines, a no-frills carrier out of Trenton, NJ. As I was boarding the plane, I asked the flight attendant greeting the passengers what was for breakfast. She said, "Breakfast? You'll be lucky to get a bag of peanuts." She went on to say the whole crew was hungry. Grinning, I said I had anticipated this and had a box of raisins in my pocket. She asked if I would share them, and I said, "No, get your own!" She laughed, I laughed and I went about finding my seat. When the plane took off, the enormity of what had happened to my brother and what I faced at the end of the flight hit and I began to cry. I am 55 years old and weigh 275 pounds. The flight attendant working the back of the plane noticed this large, middle-aged man in the rear of the plane crying, but she didn't say anything. As the plane leveled off, heading for its intermediate stop in Greensboro, NC, two other flight attendants came up the aisle from the back serving drinks. One of them was the one I had spoken to about the raisins before the flight. As she passed my seat, she reached down and snatched up my box of raisins that I had put on the empty seat beside me, and kept walking. I saw her, she saw me, she giggled, and I laughed (but with tears still running down my face thinking of my brother). The flight attendant in the back began to serve drinks to those in the back of the plane. She came to my seat, noticed that I was still crying, and asked if I was OK. I told her, "Yes, I'm alright" and she made her way on up to the front of the plane. As I sat there, I could not stop the flow of tears, and was trying to keep from breaking out into audible sobs. About 10 minutes later, she came back, asked if I'd like some more coffee, and leaned down and said, "Sir, are you sure you're OK?" This time I said, "No, I'm not OK." At which time, I pointed at the guilty flight attendant and said, "That lady stole my raisins!" We both laughed and she said, "We've had problems with her before, and I'll speak to her about it!" A few minutes later, the thief came back, grinned and said, "Here's your old raisins back!", to which I said, "I don't want them back now, you may have tampered with them!" She laughed and walked to the galley and came back with 4 or 5 packets of peanuts. "Here", she said, obviously trying to make amends. I said, still crying, "Peanuts are too high in cholesterol!" She muttered something about my being a "pain" and went back to the galley. This time, she came back with 3 or 4 cans of fruit juice, to which I said as I examined them through the tears, "What is the expiration date on these?" Laughing uncontrollably, she said, I reached out and took her hand and asked her to sit down. She did and I told her I was going to Florida because my brother was gravely ill. She asked me what was wrong, and I said he had a brain tumor and had just had brain surgery. She grabbed my other hand and pulled me close to her and said, "Listen, none of us know what God has planned for us." She asked my brother's name, my name, and then said, "My name is Susan York. I am 45 years old and three years ago my doctors told me I had a couple of days to live following brain surgery for an aneurysm. I had another aneurysm a few days later, but within a year, I was back to work full time, fully recovered. She then said, "No one can predict the outcome of Dick's illness, but we must rely on God to direct our lives according to His plan. Now you go on down to Florida, and when you get there, you let them know that this afternoon, Susan York and her family in Greensboro, NC will be praying for Dick and his family in Florida." I will never forget Susan York. 
