We watched a bit of the Australia Day concert on TV last night and had fun trying to put names to the long-forgotten faces that popped up. It reminds us how far we are from the centre of the world here in Longford. The highlight for me was the performance of Dragon. They must all be as old as me but to hear April Sun in Cuba was a delight.
Longford is starting to wake from its long Summer sleep and our regular activities will return this week, with Marilyn's Craft group. She's looking forward to getting back into routine.
THE WRONG SUITCASE 18 AUGUST 2023
We all know what it’s like at the airport, especially one of the larger ones like Sydney or Heathrow. The suitcases come around the carousel in no order. Some are lying flat, others stay upright but, unless you have made prior arrangements to make it stand out from the crowd, they all look too much the same. Sensible people attach coloured ribbons to the handle or plaster the side with stickers but, mostly, there’s no way of identifying the suitcase until you actually have it in your hands.
Miriam, like most of us, had a generic suitcase with no individual markings. It was red, like so many others, and a popular brand. She was surprised when she came late at the carousel after her trip to find that most of the bags had already been collected but was pleased to see her red suitcase making its weary way around the loop.
Being tired herself, she just dumped the suitcase in her hallway and fell into bed. It was the next day before she bothered to open it, knowing that the dirty clothes it contained would not be the worse for waiting an extra day or two before finding their way to the washing machine. But, when Miriam finally got around to opening the bag, she didn’t recognise any of the contents. Where were the dirty socks and items of underwear? What were these brown-paper wrapped parcels? Slowly, it dawned on her that she had collected the wrong suitcase from the carousel.
Miriam was intrigued by the parcels and could not resist opening one to see what it contained. Inside, she found some pencils, origami paper, other stationery, and a couple of children’s picture books. Was it a present, she wondered, for a child? Intrigued, she opened another parcel; the contents were similar, although probably aimed at an older child.
It wasn’t too late now to do something about it so Miriam carefully sorted through the contents of the suitcase to make sure there was nothing that might be dangerous, closed it up and put it back in the car to be returned to the airport.
She wasn’t sure where she would deliver the suitcase but a friendly airline employee directed her to the lost luggage office. Here she explained her dilemma to the person behind the counter. He smiled and said, “I have your suitcase here.” Then he gestured to a young man sitting on a bench against the wall.
“Here’s your bag,’ he called out. “This young lady picked it up by accident.”
A visible smile of relief passed across the face of the young man who hurried forward.
“Thank you,” he said. “That suitcase was on its way to Nepal to an orphanage we support in Kathmandhu. I didn’t know whether anyone would take the trouble to bring it back so you can’t imagine how relieved I am. It’s taken us months to collect all that material and the children would be so disappointed if it didn’t arrive.”
Miriam was intrigued and, when the young man suggested he would buy her a coffee to say thanks, she was pleased to accept. Over coffee, he explained that he was part of a loose organisation which gathered donations for children in Nepal. Several companies helped but most of the donations came from private individuals. When they had accumulated enough, a volunteer would travel to Nepal at their own expense to deliver the bounty. It was his turn to make the journey and he was devastated that he had misplaced the suitcase containing the gifts. He had managed to postpone his flight and, now that the gifts were back in his possession, he would be able to travel that afternoon.
It was as if a light had turned on in Miriam’s head. What a wonderful thing that this young man and his colleagues were doing. There were, literally, hundreds of charities crying out for assistance but there was something about this particular program which appealed to Miriam’s sense of adventure. She had always thought she might become involved in some charity work and here was an opportunity to do something special and the thought of Nepal stirred her imagination.
Over the next thirty years, Miriam worked tirelessly for Nepal. She made countless trips there, had an audience with the King in Exile, and with Kumari, the Living Child Goddess. In 2022 on her sixtieth birthday, she received the Award of the Order of the Star of Nepal. And all because she picked up the wrong suitcase at the airport.
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