She Guided the Way
BY TINA KRAMER-MERRIKEN | OCTOBER 14, 2019
For years my sister-in-law said how much she wanted to start traveling the world. She was ecstatic when my wife and I gave her money to get her passport for Christmas. About six months later, we were all at my in-law’s local beach house when she received the phone call from her doctor, whom she had just seen due to experiencing a lot of pain over the previous 2 months. That day she was diagnosed with a rare form of germ cell cancer. Soon after returning home, she started to receive chemotherapy treatments, but the cancer kept growing; it had spread to most of her body, and she was given a few months to live.
I remember my wife, her brother, and myself sitting night after night with her in her small quiet hospital room. She would say, “Cancer sucks…I am not ready…it is not my time,” so we tried to buy her more time. The three of us drove her and her oxygen tank to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, hoping they would have a solution. As days went by, more weight was lost, her breathing got harder, and her hope was fading. In her last few breaths, my wife and I promised to take her around the world with us.
A little over a year after Sarah passed, we planned a trip, over Thanksgiving break, to Iceland with my brother-in-law. It was the first trip he took after losing his wife. We spent lots of hours at the local sporting goods store buying hiking bags, boots, coats, warm gloves, and pretty much everything imaginable for the freezing temperature in Iceland. This would a special first international trip for Sarah. We found a three-day tour that explored the Golden Circle and South Coast, Northern Lights, Ice Cave, and Glacier Hiking, all amazing places to show Sarah. We were especially excited about the possibility of seeing the Northern lights. What a better way to brighten up the sad year we had watching her fade away.
We removed the small yellow urn from our bookshelf and packed some of her ashes in a plastic baggie mixed with artificial sweetener packets so that we would not have an issue on the plane and placed them in our carry-on; no one should travel in the cargo portion of the aircraft. We packed our hiking packs with four days’ worth of items we had purchased the trip. When we went to check-in at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, my wife’s passport was denied- we were in shock. A person’s passport must be valid no less than 6 months from departure date and my wife’s expired in 5.5 months. The travel agent who booked our tour never mentioned this to us. We were so disappointed that Sarah would not see Iceland.
The $10,000 spent on flights, tours, and gear did not matter because we were going to take her somewhere else she would love, even if it was within the United States. We only had backpacks with hiking clothing for frigid temperatures, so our options were limited. We asked a few airline attendants for suggestions but had no luck, so we decided to do some research on our phones over lunch at the airport. We decided on a perfect location that the three of us have never been and would require the gear we had packed. Within an hour of being denied our trip to Iceland, we booked a new flight on a different airline to Denver, Colorado, and decided on a hotel on the plane.
We enjoyed time together, a few days hiking the clay hills of Red Rocks, capturing breathtaking photos, visiting the Denver Science and Nature museum, and even having a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with a local friend. The three of us were so excited for our trip to Estes Park, which was about two hours away from our hotel. We booked a snow-covered off-road tour up a mountain to look out at Rocky Mountain National Park; we figured this was as close as we could get to the Icelandic experience. As we were driving there the temperatures got colder and it started to snow. After the long drive, we finally made it to the visitor center to relax and use the bathroom.
At the Visitor Center, we overheard people saying something about a mansion close by. I didn’t really think anything of it, since I was looking forward to the off-road tour. We got in the car and headed into the town of Estes Park. While driving, my brother-in-law points out this big mansion everyone must have been talking about. Once we got closer, we realized it was the Stanley Hotel, which was in The Shining, the Stephen King movie. Mark said, “Sarah loved Stephen King, hand me Sarah.” It was the most perfect spot to take her on her first trip. Far more spectacular than anywhere we could have taken her to in Iceland.
My heart feels joy at how everything turned out. This unexpected journey led to a remarkable place for Sarah. I think she was guiding us along the way and enjoyed the trip. Perhaps she will get to travel to Iceland in the future. By far, this turned into the best trip we had ever taken. I couldn't have imagined spending it any other way. I will take her on another vacation soon, but I can’t promise her it will be better than this adventure was.
