Unfiltered Story #362801

A few years ago, my dad was on life support at the end of his time. I had received the call early one Tuesday morning, saying they were going to pull the plug; however, not until the family had arrived. It was a four hour trip down to his location, and, at the time, I did not have a car that could handle the trip back and forth. My step-sister, who lived a hour or so away from me, agreed to pick me up and take me down.

After it was all said and done, I had to head back home to pick up my infant daughter, so I was unable to stay with my step-family (not that I was really upset about that, we never cared for each other too much.) They dropped me off at the train station after leaving the hospital mid-morning on Wednesday, three hours before the train was to arrive. At this point, I had been up all night. I found a tiny bookstore about a minute walk away and bought a few books to occupy my time at the station.

Half hour before the train was to arrive, an announcement that it was delayed was made. The same announcement came on multiple times, resulting in the train being delayed by four hours. Basically, the train arrived at the time I was scheduled to be arriving home.

When it did arrive, it was not made clear that one car was for everyone getting off before the major city train station. It just so happens, that was the car I got on. The employee at the train door rolled his eyes when he asked me where I was getting off and said, “Of course you are going all the way to [city.] You must be too drugged up to realize you are on the wrong car.” I’ll admit, I was looking a little rough around the edges, but it was because I had been up for over 24 hours at that point.

The train ride took even longer because of mechanical issues or something. I didn’t pull into the city station until midnight. Luckily, I had a friend who was willing to pick me up there rather than let me wait two hours for the train to my town. Since my daughter was staying with my mom, I was able to crash for 12 hours once I got home.