The power of 12
I AM REMEMBERING my mother on the first Mother’s Day without her. She died six months before and I miss her terribly. Another flight attendant working on my crew recently lost her mother as well and the two of us are sharing stories and reminiscing, smiling and sniffling, wishing we had just one more Mother’s Day to celebrate and honor our sweet mothers.
My mother was born on December 12 and 12/12 was always an iconic date in our family. It was very easy to remember Mom’s birthday. As a child, I remember her telling me on her 12th birthday on 12/12, she had 12 little girls come to her birthday party. As a little kid, I was enchanted by the idea of this numerological event, envious that my birthday, 3/18, could never be celebrated in such a way.
On my mother’s 85th birthday on 12/12/12, my three siblings and I threw her a big party which we had planned for a year. Friends and family from all over gathered to celebrate, to toast, to share silly stories and fond memories with the small, thin, rosy-cheeked woman, slightly tipsy from champagne, who was celebrating her special day and eating birthday cake for the 85th time on December 12, 2012- 12/12/12. Little did I know I would lose her in less than two years. She wouldn’t live to see her 87th birthday.
When a flight attendant crew gets to their layover hotel, the flight attendant in charge fills out the hotel’s sign-in sheet with names and employee numbers and gives it to the front desk clerk who then hands over a stack of room key cards. Room assignments are random unless a crew member has a special request, like a room with a bathtub or a smoking room.
Usually keys are quickly passed out and then we all head to the elevators, sometimes making plans to meet and go shopping, or have a drink, or go to dinner. Sometimes we just go to our rooms, slam the door and click the lock, becoming a “slam clicker”, a slightly disparaging term for a flight attendant who prefers to be left alone rather than socialize with the crew.
The flight attendant in charge of my crew finishes the paperwork, receives the room keys and quickly, randomly, passes them out to the waiting flight attendants hovering around the front desk.
I am handed room key number 1212.