One Saturday when I was visiting my sister, Ann, I said, "One of my dreams is to take mom and dad to Europe someday." Ann grabbed my arm and replied, "So, you've been saying this to me for years what are you waiting for? Mom is seventy. Dad is seventy four." That was my wake up call. That weekend Ann and I went to a travel agency and got a catalog of European tours. We gave it to mom and dad and told them to select any tour and we'd take them on it. They chose the kind of European vacation that I'd made fun of for years. The tag line of the tour was, "See 7 countries in 14 days." I thought, "They picked a tour that takes us on planes, buses, trains and boats for two whirlwind weeks. Mom is diabetic and tends to have insulin reactions and take falls. Dad had polio as a child and needs a wheelchair if he's going any distance." I said to my sister, "Are we going to regret this? Will this crazy dream of mine kill us all in the end?" She said, "What a way to go, " so we went.
A few months later, there we were, passports in hand, setting off on our great adventure. We flew to England and joined our guide, Teresa, our driver, Franco and the fellow members of our English speaking tour. Our fellow travelers were from America, England, Canada, Indonesia and a bunch of wild crazy big hearted women from Australia. The group quickly agreed that mom and dad were exempt from rotating around the coach and always had the best seats right behind Franco. As soon as Franco stopped anywhere he leapt from the bus and had dad's wheelchair ready to go before he got off the bus. The other passengers fought over who got to push dad around. As we got to each destination, Teresa would walk through the bus and 'randomly' hand out room keys for that night's hotel. Amazingly, mom and dad always got the best and biggest room. That was a good thing because the Aussies declared mom and dad's room the permanent happy hour location. Bob and Harriette were in heaven. They loved it!
We traveled through parts of England, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg and saw some gorgeous sights, stayed in some amazing old hotels and villas, floated down the Rhine and had spontaneous experience like being invited to join a local wedding celebration. I watched with tears in my eyes as a new friend swept mom onto a dance floor under the twinkling lights on a deck overlooking Lake Como in Italy. What a memory!
Everyone stayed alive and well throughout the trip. I realized I wasn't the only one who was worried. As we were riding a train through the Swiss Alps, dad turned to me and said, "You know, I thought this trip would kill me, but I'm so glad I came anyhow. This is living!"
As we landed, alive and well, in Minneapolis two memory filled weeks later, we all agreed that it was an amazing, once in a lifetime trip. For years afterwards, Dad and Mom poured over their photo album of the vacation and kept up correspondence with their new friends in Australia. I'm so glad my sister asked me what I was waiting for and we went when we did and I encourage everyone not to postpone those adventures that are priorities to them. About six months after we took our trip, mom fell and broke her hip and dad started showing symptoms of Alzheimers. We just got under the wire.
What I took in my Wisepack Travel Purse on the trip:
Those little plastic rain ponchos since it would be hard for the parents to carry umbrellas and difficult for us to push a wheelchair holding them
Baggies of candy, energy bars and juice boxes in case of an insulin reaction or delayed meal
Our passports hidden in the zipper part that is safely against my back at all times
Documentation of the international travel health insurance we got before leaving home (very inexpensive) in the hidden pocket
Bottles of water
Hats and gloves (because parents can get cold more easily)
Disposable cameras
Aspirin and Biofreeze
Travel journal
Karen Stinson
