If you read my last blog, you may recall I mentioned two of my loneliest trips. The first, was when my time in the Disney College Program ended. This one will focus on the second trip I mentioned, when I went home last year for a family members funeral.
This particular trip was sad for two reasons. The first one is pretty obvious - I'd just lost a grandparent and was in route to say goodbye to another grandparent, after having lost their spouse a few months before. But also, this was the first time I'd been in another state from my wife and first born child for any period of time. My oldest child, now about to be 2, was only a few months at that the time.
I'd never imagined that I'd have to leave her and my wife for any reason, even temporarily, so early in her life. I didn't want to miss a moment of it. But, this was something that I'd needed to do. I couldn't miss the chance to say one last goodbye to my grandparent. That was the longest, the normally short, 8-hour drive to New Orleans had ever felt.
It didn't help that once I'd made it, I'd really only had a night to rest with family before the funeral processes started. Mentally, the private viewing was probably the hardest. I'm not sure if any of you have experienced a private family viewing but, man, words can't express the emotional exhaustion this presents.
After everything was said and done, the drive home was worse. I recall driving back nearly 4 hours in total silence - no phone calls, no music. I was in a place that I even couldn't process attempting to distract myself for awhile. If you can imagine, the very boring and flat sroad surrounds didn't exactly make the drive any more enjoyable. But I was eventually able to call my wife and listen to music to help the drive feel a bit better.
As many of us know, not every trip is fun. As I'm sure many of you guys have experienced, a lonely trip can happen and sometimes that's all you can count it as - an experience. If you're lucky enough to have never experienced this, I envy you greatly.
Thanks for sharing this time with me.
D'Vaughn Delpit
Dreams of Wonder Travel Agency
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