At Jack's birthday party I mentioned that the only thing that marred what was a perfect event was when we all watched his yellow balloon leave his toddler grip and float up into the sky, gone forever. We all watched for as long as we could still squint and see it. And we talked about it days later even. Jack and I spent the following day at Nanna's house, where the party had been. On waking from his nap a full 24 hours later he said: "balloon gone."
And that is how it goes. It's hard to let go, but sometimes things are just gone. Gone forever. Gone irrevocably. And holding onto the pain of the loss just keeps you in agony. You want the yellow balloon back. You want to know WHY the yellow balloon had to go. The red balloon is an inferior substitute for what used to be so good. You think about the yellow balloon and how wonderful it was. How happy you were when it was here. And you wonder where it is now.
And it reminded me of my lost luggage -- or rather my lifetime of mementos contained in a single suitcase that was lost by Continental Airlines when our family moved across the country in March. This week, as we were cleaning (well, cleaning as well as we could in a house under renovation with no kitchen and boxes everywhere) in preparation for some house guests I was clearing off my temporary desk in my temporary office. And there was the meager check from Continental Airlines. On the back of the check it pretty much says that if you deposit it you are agreeing that it represents settlement of your claim. So I have not deposited it.
Rather, I have had fantasies of going to their vast lost luggage warehouse in Houston. I have also had fantasies about taking their asses to small claims court and getting the full amount of the claim from them. As I mentioned before, the $285 they are paying me does not even cover what I have to pay out to replace the rented baby doppler.
Don't get me wrong. The PEOPLE, the individual human beings that I have dealt with at the airline have been very kind and helpful. I will be forever angry at the CORPORATION for losing my treasures and I am angry at them for their stupid policies that made it difficult to locate my luggage or settle my claim for a fair amount.
Nonetheless, hanging onto the check and my fantasies has been making me crazy. Here I am now, 8+ months pregnant. I am not going to Houston. I am not going to small claims court. And hanging onto the idea of those things is only punishing me, not some corporation. Even if I took them to small claims court it would represent just a drop in ocean of money to them -- as unimportant to them as my luggage was. It would be a lot of effort and emotional distress for me to do what would be just a tiny blip to them.
So tomorrow I will deposit their check. I have filed a claim with my homeowners insurance company, and I am hoping that they are more reasonable than Continental. (A continental representative suggested I file a claim with my homeowners insurance company, and what was not covered by them I could deduct as a loss on my taxes next year). Interestingly, one of the claim people at the insurance company said to me: "Most people don't realize that the only thing airlines pay for are lost clothes." I hope the insurance company comes through.
What can I do now? Well, I can tell everyone I run into for the rest of my life that Continental lost my luggage and the corporation's policies made it impossible to find it again. And that their reimbursement policies are not even close to being fair. And I can tell everyone I run into to never check anything in luggage that they aren't willing to lose forever.
I can set an example for my son, something that is actually truly important, and stop crying over the yellow balloon. There is nothing I can do to get it back. It is just gone.
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