My Ride on the Sonoma County Late Night Airport Express

I decided to catch the 9:45 pm shuttle tonight, the last one of the night, and spend the night in the airport, to be able to catch my 6:30 am flight. Well, the drive with Sam (not real name) to the airport was great. I'll try to share some of his story and our trip together in this post. We were the only ones on the bus so I sat up front in order to talk to him and learn about his life. He shared so much starting with being born in Vietnam and coming to this country on a boat, when he was just seventeen, all alone. He talked and talked often interrupting his flow of sharing to say, "Wow! I'm talking so much, I never talk this much!" I continued to listen. He told me that although he couldn't speak english, he was able to get a job as a dishwasher. It was at that job where an “angel” (Sam’s words) came into his life and ended up showing him how to navigate in this new world. She basically adopted him, helping him to get an education, learn english, and then helped him go to cosmetology school. He became a hair stylist and also loved to travel. He traveled to many different places in the US and would work for awhile and then travel some more. This lady (his guardian angel) he told me, gave him guidelines on how things worked and what he needed to do to survive in the world. He spoke a lot about this lady and how much she helped him and how grateful he was for her and that he never would have had the life that he had if it wasn't for her. She also helped him to get his commercial license since he liked to drive so much.

We continued our drive to the airport making stops at pick up places, but no one was getting on the bus. At these stops he would offer me drinks and popcorn and whatever else i wanted. I had some popcorn, chocolate and peanuts. We were having fun.

Sam then told me that his angel is now 97 years old and she is dying. He was so sad about this. He told me that he had just gotten a call from her caretaker, about an hour earlier, who said if he wanted to see his friend and say goodbye he needed to come right away. We were both quiet for a moment and then he asked me, "would I mind if instead of going to SFO, we first went to Oakland so he could go see her and say goodbye?" Seeing that I had all night, my plane didn’t leave until 6:30 in the morning, I said, "Of course". So into Oakland we went. Me and Sam in this huge and empty bus. We got to where she lived. Sam quickly darted out of the bus while I stayed behind. I looked out the window, I didn’t know where I was, it didn’t look like a safe neighborhood, my mind started to have fearful thoughts, but I felt i was okay.  He had left all his stuff in the bus, and of course the bus itself. I checked the street signs so I knew where I was in case I needed to call the police, and the police were just down the street anyway with some kind of police action that was going on. I waited in the bus for about 10 minutes, 15 minutes at the most and then Sam returned crying and thanking me profusely for letting him go see his friend to say goodbye. He couldn't stop thanking me and said that he owed me. I said, "Of course you don't owe me. I'm not in a hurry and this just seemed the right thing to do. I feel honored to be here with you at this time.”
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We continued on to SFO while we talked about how to honor the memory of his dear friend/guardian angel. I suggested he light a candle for her when he got home. He really liked that idea. He then shared about his children, and how proud he was of them and how much he loved them, one graduating from seventh grade, and another graduating from the JC. He shared about his wonderful life and wife and how blessed he was for all of it.

This was such a beautiful moment for me. The meeting of two strangers with vastly different lives, but for some reason I and this soul got to meet and connect in such an intimate way. I feel honored to have been witness to all of this.

June 2023