When I got back to the hotel and checked my email, I got an urgent message from my sister who said our mother (my biological aunt, for those of you who read my earlier post about my parents passing away) had a major stroke last night of the most serious kind. I've spent the past 2+ hours trying to figure out how to change my original Sunday flight back to the Midwest to an earlier flight that will get me to NYC sooner. Of course, the Delta toll free number doesn't work outside the US and the Delta number for the UK is only 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. and I unfortunately tried calling them at 8:15 p.m., just missing them. Argh!
So now I feel trapped here on the other side of the Atlantic, not knowing if my mother is going to hang in there long enough for me to get home (whenever that will be). On top of that, from what my sister told me, NYC is currently in the middle of a blizzard that's supposed to drop nearly two feet of snow. I might not even be able to come home sooner than Sunday. All I can say is thank goodness I got travel insurance. I only purchased it thinking that the snowy weather in February is so unpredictable (and heavy) this year; and I didn't want to risk missing a flight due to weather delays or cancellations. I never in a million years thought that I would need to cut my trip short because of a family medical emergency.
This is going to be a LONG ten and a half hour night waiting for Delta UK to open their phone lines again...