Curt Anderson

An elderly man passed away on my flight to London. After delays and reroutes, I ended up in the CLT Admirals Club. Near me was a husband & wife. Their banter was interesting; I couldn’t help but listen & watch. My flight ended up delayed 20hrs, so I went to a hotel. Back at the airport the next day, I was ornery. My normal extreme patience was smashed by dumb stuff. I was annoyed that every part of the CLT renovation has made the airport worse, that I had to show a boarding pass to enter the PreCheck Touchless line when Touchless is supposed to use only facial recognition, and the Cinnabon I got with my airline voucher tasted terrible. Upon boarding, the couple from the night before were settling in next to me. The flight attendant prepared welcome drinks, and the man described how he would like his tea, then thanked the FA saying, “Thank you, I will like that very much.” For the next half hour, they FaceTimed with their grandkids. The man gleefully talked about being on a big plane, how it would fly to the amazing city of London, and how much he would love to take them on a big plane to London. He told them how much he loved them, and that he’d send photos from London. He didn’t make it to London. I went to sleep a few hours into the flight. I got up to use the restroom and saw crew pull him out of a lavatory, lower him to the ground, and rip his shirt open to apply the AED and start CPR. The plane turned around and we diverted to Canada. They concluded CPR about an hour before we landed in Canada. In Canada, Medical, Police, and Border Patrol boarded. His blanket-wrapped body was lifted into a body bag and zipped. I helped the woman gather their belongings and showed her the peaceful video of her husband. She exclaimed how lovely it was; I sent her the video to her to have. Back in the air to London, it was hard to sleep that night. I kept seeing the man being zipped up as I drifted in & out. When my time comes, I hope it’s something as good as this man got: flying somewhere amazing at an old age, with my wife, after a nice chat with my kids & grandkids…and causing a flight diversion that 350 people will be talking about forever.

Front of camera, back of camera

MEL ✈︎ SYD

Hot days in the city call for a swim in the Yarra. I love these full circle moments in life, spending time with good friends we’ve had for 18 years and now our kids getting to play together.

Ocean, beach walks, and coffees

Awesome time at Family Camp with & , closing the night bringing a horde of kids onstage to sing and jump around

Out on the water together as the sunrise stretched out over the Phillip Island cliffs