“Sojourn’s End,” 5″ x 8″ watercolor By Donna Lyons © 2015
By Marty Coffin Evans © 2016
They’d been separated for years. Now an arranged phone call connected them to loved ones many miles and a continent or two away.
Perhaps one was in refugee camp while the other, safe in another country. Perhaps one was exiled waiting for release and freedom. Whatever the circumstance, a long- awaited call would soon arrive.
The phone connection’s length – three minutes. “Hello. I am fine. How are you?”
Two minutes fifty nine seconds remain to tell, ask about and capture life since they last saw each other. What did they talk about – family members, health, livelihood, the political situation or…?
Thinking about having only three minutes to talk with a loved one, knowing the call would disconnect soon, raises questions for us. Would we talk about the trivial or mundane such as weather? If it were a major factor in our dislocation from each other, we just might.
I remember making a phone call to my mother when she was living in California. Given the long lines at the terminal phone booths that September 11, 2001, I made a ship to shore call to her. It’s cost – $48; its value – priceless.
We had sailed out of New York City, by the World Trade Center, on September 7, headed up the East Coast on a Fall Foliage cruise. We’d passed Boston and were in Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia when vacationers nearby asked if we were from America. “Have you heard the news?” Finding a gift shop, with its radio playing, we soon learned “the news.”
No doubt connecting with family members during a time of tragedy can be major. We know that to be true given the stories of those on the doomed flights, in the Trade Center or Pentagon, who called home one last time.
Did they have three minutes to make those calls? While the length may be unknown, the impact of the connections remains timeless and invaluable. Who would you call? What would you say?
September 2024