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| A MODERN-DAY CHRISTMAS STORY |
Published: 12/28/2010 Author: Larry Bailey
Posted On: December 28, 2010 at 6:48 AM By: |
Want to hear about Christmas good will and love and the
things we hear about the season? Well, stay tuned; here’s
one for you, and it happened within the Gathering of Eagles
community.
It all started when the Bailey family invited the beautiful
22-year-old daughter of their Finnish friend, Jari Salo, to
visit them during Thanksgiving week. Laura Salo was a
true joy as the Baileys’ first Finnish guest ever! She was
just completing a foreign-study semester at Emporia State
University in Kansas.
When Laura left eastern NC to resume her studies at ESU,
we, the Baileys, thought our relationship with her in the USA
was finished (no pun intended). You know—we’d stay in
touch after she went back to Finland and maybe exchange
Christmas cards and pursue the usual intercontinental
communications and things like that.
We CERTAINLY never thought that GOE would come into
Laura’s life as it did!
On December 19, Laura left Kansas en route home to
Finland via JFK Airport in New York and Schiphol Airport in
Amsterdam. All was well until she cleared TSA at JFK and
was actually boarding her flight to Amsterdam. The airline
announced that the flight was cancelled due to bad weather
in Amsterdam and her earliest flight availability was two days
later. Well, poor Laura was stuck—stuck in a miserable
place, too, with no idea about what she could do.
The next day, Laura’s father, Jari, called me from Helsinki,
where he had gone to meet Laura’s flight from Amsterdam.
Bad news—Laura was still in America and was all by herself
for two days, with no place to lay her (by-then) VERY weary
head. What could we do?
And adding to Laura’s predicament was the fact that all of
Laura’s luggage was sent to Amsterdam! Poor child…
Well, the first thing I did was to call Eagle Dan Maloney in
NYC, who told me that he’d be glad to help Laura, but that
his house was already packed with Christmas relatives. He
then volunteered to drive to JFK and pick her up and take
her to a place of refuge. He suggested that I contact fellow
New York (well, really New Jersey) Eagle Carolyn Van Zorge
and ask if she could help in that regard.
As it turned out, Carolyn DID help—big time! Folks,
Carolyn’s probably never been referred to as a saint, but she
qualifies as one now! She was at work for the night, but she
quickly arranged things in her own home to accommodate a
new tenant and coordinated arrangements with Dan to drive
to JFK and pick up Laura and deliver her to her pad in New
Jersey.
Remember, now, this is in the middle of the night, and
Dan drove umpteen miles to JFK and, after a couple more
coordinating phone calls, managed to find Laura, load her
up, and carry her to Carolyn’s home, where her daughter,
Elena, and a few of Elena's friends were waiting to greet
the surprise Christmas visitor with open arms and a glass of
wine!
From this point on I’m not too sure what happened, but
Elena gave up her bedroom to Laura and moved in with her
mother for the next two nights. That was all I was interested
in, so I removed myself from the bidding. Later, though, I
found out that Elena and her friends had taken Laura on the
type of trip Americans like best—a shopping trip to the mall!
They also took her to a very classy restaurant for dinner, I
am led to understand.
Folks, what we have here is an example of how we Eagles
can come together to be what most Americans really are—
naturally friendly people who welcome strangers into their
midst. I can assure you that Laura and her parents will
never forget how several people she had never heard of
came to her rescue and made her Christmas 2010 one she
will never forget.
And me? Why, I never set foot out of my North Carolina
home. My part was easy—all I had to do was identify the
problem to my New York/New Jersey friends, and they did
the real work. And I’ll guarantee you that one Finnish family
will be pro-American forever!
Thank you, Dan and Carolyn and Elena and your friends, for
making your country look so good and for further affirming
the Eagle Ethos—helping those in need in time of crisis!
Happy New Year to you all!
Larry Bailey |
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| Posted on December 28, 2010 at 6:48 AM by
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To: Kathy A Modern -Day Christmas Story
It is Jari Salo from Finland here.
Yes, that sure was some story. We have not enough words to say , how Thankful we are for what, Larry, Dan and Carolyn did for Laura and us.
That kindness and all, wow, that was amazing. We slept well because we knew, that our daughter was in good hands.
We have always known, that Larry and his family are our Friends but now they all are part of our Family , aswell, Dan, Carolyn and Elena.
Once again, Thank You So Much for what you did,
God Bless You, God Bless America
United We Stand.
And yes, we will support YOU always.
Jari, Paivi, Laura, Karoliina and Sanna-Katriina Salo
1 Posted On: December 29, 2010 at 4:19 AM By:
To: Yari47
Thanks for posting a note, Jari! I've also been a guest at Hotel Carolyn. What a fantastic bunch of folks up in NY and NJ!
2 Posted On: December 29, 2010 at 7:24 PM By:
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