Day 134: St. Lucia

I started out today with one of those "daughter's hunches" that something was just not right with my mom. She's not been feeling well at all for several days now, but she's still been emailing me every morning and I've been calling her using Vonage (for free!  Get the app!) every evening. Last night, I thought she sounded better, but still felt uneasy about her. I was up early this morning, snuck out of the cabin and went to the International Cafe for coffee and to check on her. When there was no email, I tried phoning her at home. When that didn't work, I tried phoning her cell. When that didn't work, I knew my uneasy feeling had been right. I phoned her neighbor who told me he had called 911 for her last night and she had been transported to the hospital. This morning, he still hadn't heard anything from her. 

This was one of those times when it's hard to be on a ship. 

Any plans for the day went out the window, and I settled in for a day of nerves. When Internet on the ship crapped out entirely, I purchased the all day for $5 package in the terminal. When I could no longer make Vonage calls using that, I went to the Passenger Services Desk and told them about the situation. Thankfully, they allowed me to make a phone call to Mom in the hospital to determine my response to the situation. Then back to the terminal to use wifi to check on flight options, then booking a back up from Fort Lauderdale on March 19th, then back to the ship to make a call, back and forth, back and forth. I'm so lucky that we were in St. Lucia today with wifi in the terminal!

Finally, the decision was made to not fly out today, though I've learned not to assume that last minute flights from the islands are always prohibitively expensive. I can fly one way from St. Lucia or St. Kitts for under $600; Barbados and St. Thomas, with larger airports, are much more expensive. 

So I am in a holding pattern right now, with a fallback position in place for March 19th. These are anxious hours, but it's not an unexpected part of life.