Sylvia's Journal

Axel got up before me this morning. This is very rare and happens only when he has to catch an early flight to some faraway place or on my birthday. It is that day today. Five months ago I would not have considered this a special birthday (56). But now I do. It is a birthday that nearly never happened.

Axel set up the birthday girl’s breakfast place with a collection of stuffed animals and one of the remaining flowers from our garden, a lonely snapdragon. The lucky one that escaped while the other ones outside had to endure the sleet and the icy rain from the snowstorm that never quite materialized.

Yesterday I biked my way to Quaker Meeting, one half hour each way. It was bitter cold but I was prepared with my long johns and other warm clothing. I enjoyed the ride tremendously. There is so much to see along the way. This part of the world is beautiful in any season. When I came back Axel and Ted were preparing for the winter storm that was heading our way from out West: raking leaves, putting the duckboards out, one last mowing and making room for the snowplow to put the excess snow. Inside the house everything was warm and cosy. We were ready for the storm. We finished the sub-continent meal that we had had with Alison the night before. Slightly aged, it tasted even better.

I took the car to go to my 2 o’clock flight lesson but stranded on route 128 with the temperature gauge indicating that something was terribly wrong with the car. I called Arne from the flight school that I was stuck and had to cancel my lesson. He must have picked up the utter disappointment in my voice. Less than an hour later, after AAA had towed me to a garage, Arne picked me up from the garage and drove me to the flight center. The thought occurred to me that some forces in the Universe were conspiring against me flying again, with too much wind on Saturday and now this car trouble. But counterforces were also conspiring and the plane was still available one hour after my scheduled flying time. And so we took off, or rather, I took off with Arne by my side, just in case.

It was a perfect day to practice my landings as there was no wind at all. The windsock was hanging limply on its pole. I stayed in the traffic pattern and practiced touch-and-go’s. I did seven or eight landings. Arne never had to take the controls and I never broke out in a cold sweat. The landings were perfect or close to perfect. It was wonderful and exciting to fly again. It was also beautiful to fly over Essex County on a late and crystal clear winter afternoon.

Arne brought me back home where I found Axel and Woody sitting by a roaring fire drinking smoky tea and scheming on my birthday present. I found it this morning at breakfast: Spitfire Women of World War II. The book is about the Women’s Air Transport Auxiliaries, a group of women who ferried planes to Britain during the war. Woody’s mom was one of them, and an important flying inspiration and cheerleader to me. The book had just come out and Woody had some in stock. As it happened, I just finished Harry Potter and was looking for a new book to read.