The ability to bond with people on a moment's notice is a gift from my parents. It comes in handy, especially in airports. In fact, many years ago, my mother sent me a picture of herself eating a sinful-looking dessert in an airport restaurant. (Memphis, I believe.) The picture had been taken by a woman Mom met while they waited for their flights. Naturally, the woman's name went on my mother's Christmas card list.

    On a recent trip to Ohio (to attend a writers' workshop), as we were told to board our plane, the woman sitting across from me got up from her seat, looked around frantically, then said to her husband, "I've lost my cane."
    "I saw it in the rest room," I said. Four days later, as my husband and I approached the gate for our return flight, she waved at us enthusiastically. We chatted about our respective weekends and she said, "You're never going to believe what I've done. I left my cane again, this time at my daughter's house." We chuckled together, like friends do.

    Before that, as my husband and I had walked through the airport, we noticed some of the workshop attendees in the bar, having lunch. With hours to wait before take-off, we asked the decades-younger foursome if we could join them. When one woman left to catch her plane, a man who'd been sitting at the bar approached the beautiful woman to my right, a mother of six. "I've been staring at you," he said, hanging his jacket over the back of the empty chair next to her. "You look exactly like an old girlfriend of mine." Receiving no encouragement, he left, and we had a good laugh about his pickup line.

    The mother of six was on our return flight. As we tried to find out why our plane had been delayed, a man approached the desk. "Is your name Tim?" I asked. (To my husband's wonderment, I'm sure.) "No," he said. He turned to look at me head on, just as I was about to tell him he looked like someone I'd gone to school with. I could see he, too, was decades younger than I. "What are you doing," asked the mother of six, "Trying to pick him up?" His face reddened, as did mine. We learned he and his wife were sending their 13 year old niece home after their vacation in the Bahamas. "We'll watch out for her," the beautiful mother of six and I (the trusty old grandma) promised. We turned to the teenager and exchanged friendly chatter, letting her know we could be fun as well as protective.

    A delayed flight is a good time to expound about ethics with a young man reading, "A Million Little Pieces." And to chat with an even-younger man returning to his new home after visiting friends from his college days. A recent graduate, he'd accepted a job with a major corporation. The mom in me was tempted to offer my business card, to tell him if he ever needed anything, he should call. But it appeared he was doing quite well on his own.

    An hour later, as I walked to my seat in row 10, a woman I'd met at the workshop greeted me. Later, she helped me get my luggage off the baggage carousel. She opened her suitcase and gave me a copy of the book she wrote. When I finished reading it, I added her name to my Christmas card list. Along with that of the mother of six.