Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us. ~ Boris Pasternak

A Happy Surprise

Mostly because big brother lives 3500 miles away, my mother rarely has her three children together at any one time. Last weekend my brother, sister-in-law and three children decided to take the train up from NYC to see my mom. My sister who lives locally was going to join them for lunch in the town I grew up in. I was included on all of the group texts between everyone including my aunt, Mother and my father. Within the group text my brother happened to screen shot the train his family was taking upstate. This planted a seed of an idea in my head. The seed began to grow and realizing my parents and aunt are all in their eighties, who knows if this group will ever be together again. So the seed of an idea bloomed into a full plan.

I booked a flight east on Saturday, booked a room in Time Square, and bought a ticket for the same train my brother’s family would be taking the next morning. I was in a room in Manhattan when I made my weekly call to my mother, I was laughing as she was asking me about the weather in San Francisco and what I was up to for the day. I even liked a post made by my family’s bakery that I could smell the baking from here, here of course was the next borough over, not across the country.

So Sunday morning I headed down to Penn Station to ambush my brother’s family. But as the boarding call was made I hadn’t found them so I needed to board the train. Sitting on the train I figured I’d text my brother once the train was rolling and find them then. At about this time I see my brother coming down the car carrying my littlest niece. I leaned into the aisle, “can I help you sir?” The look on his face was amazing, it was somewhere between recognition and confusion. I was wearing a mask and pulled it aside and watched his and my niece’s eyes go wide and he asked, “what are you doing here?” It was a wonderful surprised and I sat with my littlest niece and littlest nephew on the two-hour train ride. My niece never stopped talking. I loved it, but man can that kid talk.

Arriving in my old hometown, Hudson, NY I waited and exited the train from a different exit than my brother’s family. Coming toward the station a couple of minutes behind them, I suddenly heard my sister exclaim, “Oh my god, it’s Uncle Mike!” Everyone was incredibly shocked, I enjoyed the disbelief on their faces as people said hello and hugged me.

We spent the day walking the city, including walking back through the old hood where I grew up. I played tour guide for my brother’s family and then fourteen of us had lunch together, followed by ice cream. Wrapped the day by walking my brother’s family back to the train. I spent the night in town and caught breakfast with some of the family the next morning before boarding my own train back to Penn Station.

It was a whirlwind tour, three hotels, two 6AM flights, two Amtrak rides, two Long Island Railroad rides and a couple of JFK Airtrain rides all over three days. An upgrade made one leg business class and the other first class so at least the flights were comfortable.

All in all it was a very happy surprise, and of course, there was a lot of pizza.

Surprises are wonderful, I’ve always felt people don’t create enough surprises, but they make for happy days my friends. ~ Rev Kane