Grenada Day 1

Ok folks. Chapter 3.

After my tribulations in Trinidad, big turnaround!

From the time I got on to the flight to Grenada, things seemed to work. I don’t know whether it was the surrendering that did it, or if I did something to make her (God) happy.  Easy flight. Through Immigration in a flash and found Brian M waiting for me at the door of the terminal with our transportation ready to go. Certainty is such a blessing. And long silent hugs work wonders for the sole, not just for him, also for me.

Admittedly the drive to the hotel was one of those narrow-curvy-island-road-in-the-dark-death-defying-drives the Caribbean islands are famous for. If you’ve done one of those, you know what I’m talking about. Although I was in the back seat, I was still slamming my foot on the brake every once in a while as I was sure we were doomed. I mean I didn’t just think we were going to crash, I knew we were. But somehow miraculously – 44 switchbacks later - we arrived at the hotel unscathed. Wow! Talk about surrendering. So I lived to say that part of the trip sort of, worked, in a way.

Now upon arrival, the whole welcome at the hotel was gracious, caring, and effortless. The couple that owns the hotel came and introduced themselves as we bellied up to the bar and couldn’t have been more wonderful. And a couple of Margaritas later Brian M and I were in a deep and intimate conversation for healing – one of those ones where you can cut the shared grief with a knife. Of course since the occurring so shapes our conversations and actions, we began to right away, dig into that. Brian was drinking iced tea. And for me the margaritas definitely helped get the process going.

There are so many people impacted by this, including of course the hotel guests here, the owners, and most of all, Jess’s family back in the U.S. In some ways it seems it may be even harder for them to deal with as they are left to do so from a distance. There's no direct actions for them to take. It's almost complete helpless and grief for them. All the healing, forgiveness, the second guessing, the anger, the guilt – all that morass of emotions - will take a long while to play out and get complete for everyone directly impacted by this. The process of healing is just beginning. And it has begun.

We’ll be meeting with the authorities this afternoon to recreate this whole incident. Not an easy conversation to have. I don’t quite know what to expect.

On another note, Ziggy is the younger of two cats (and two dogs) roaming the grounds of this establishment. He’s a Tiger cat like the last one Anne and I had. He found and instantly adopted me this morning. He follows me around, meows constantly, rubs himself against my leg, and purrs when I scratch his ears and head. He’s been in my room, up on my bed, and napped on my shorts that were laying there. It’s occurred to me that maybe he’s an angel, sent to watch out for me. Or he could just be a cat that likes his ears scratched! I don’t no.