About half-way through yesterday's journey to Michael's commencement from Wayne State Law, the song "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" was on shuffle play in my head. Between silent prayers asking for God's provision to get us to the Detroit Opera House by 4, this little R&B ditty kept me focused.
And here's why.
First and foremost, there was nothing more important to our clan. Matthew drove up from DePauw to Saugatuck so we could leave by noon. It was our mission to watch our son walk and to be there to help him celebrate.
We were going 75 on I96, on schedule and about half-way to Detroit, when John got a call from the Subaru dealership where he'd purchased his new Outback about a month ago. Sitting in the back, listening to the one-sided conversation I knew there was some sort of crisis. My initial thought was it was work-related. Snippets included; "I didn't realize it was urgent", "I'm on my way to my son's graduation in Detroit, where is the nearest one?", "How long would that take because I need to be at my son's graduation by 4?", "Okay, find one close by and call me back."
When he hung up, we learned that there had been a recall on our Subaru - something about a missing joint on the steering column that could result in the steering locking. Keep in mind, we are going 75+ on a busy highway and hell bent on getting to Michael's graduation. The picture of the that happening would normally have had me pleading with John to pull over immediately. The dealer wanted us to get to a dealer immediately - it was critical. We wanted to get to Detroit by 4 - it was critical. Critical collided.
The dealer instructed us how to determine if our car was indeed affected by the recall. And there was a glimmer of hope. We pulled off the highway and Matthew climbed under the car to find the numbers that determined our fate for the next hour or so.Ours was one of the 46,000 vehicles affected by the recall. The dealership knew our focus and called ahead to another Subaru dealership 'along the way' in Southfield. That dealership would keep our car and arrange for a rental so we could get to the opera house on time. They hoped. We prayed.
In the meantime, Michael had our tickets and we weren't sure how long the paperwork etc would take at the dealership. And we, meaning me, didn't want to stress out Michael on his graduation day. So we arranged for an Uber to pick up Delaney and Matthew so they could get there on time and get our tickets. And meet up with my mom, sister and brother-in-law, and Michael's girlfriend who would also need to get the tickets to get into the graduation.
Delaney had to get the Uber app first and did so while we're driving an 'accident-waiting-to-happen' 75 down 96. Matthew was checking GPS to determine how long it would take to get to the opera house on time. Technology and team effort could possibly save this day ...
We pulled into the dealership just as our Uber arrived. Matthew and Delaney grabbed what they thought they needed.
We pulled into the dealership to be greeted by the service manager with "Are you from Saugatuck?" She knew we were in a hurry and needed to get a rental asap and expedited much of the process because within 10 minutes, a man from Hertz car rental was there to take us to the rental lot. Within another 15 minutes we were in a rental on the way to the opera house and GPS said we would arrive at 4:05! Prayers answered.
We got to see Michael walk. It was made all that much sweeter because we we'd had to overcome obstacles to get there. It truly wasn't until this morning as I was sipping my coffee that the emotions of his achievement could truly sink in!
After the ceremony, while in the way to meet everyone for dinner, Matthew realized he'd left his notebook in the car at the dealership and needed it for his final today. Thankfully, I had the service manager's card in my purse. I called silently praying that they were open and was soon greeted by "This is Glassman Subaru, how may I help you?" Another prayer answered. The service manager assured me that she would leave the car unlocked and we could get what we needed. "Get what you need and lock up after," she said.
And that's what we did. A three hour drive home and John said after we pulled up the drive, "All that in less than 12 hours". As we unloaded the car and
Delaney called from the garage, "Do you have a key? The door is locked."
You guessed it, the house key was on the key ring at the dealership in Southfield. Matthew, Delaney and I didn't have our keys. A quick check of all the doors found no easy entry. So at 11:30 pm, I placed a call to our neighbor. Kris answered and they indeed had a key. Phew!! (Grateful for neighbors with a key AND that answer their phones at 11:30 p.m.!)
Can you count my blessings from this day? I know the ones I recognized and included - top of the list is Michael!- but I know there are even many more I didn't recognize. And those are the ones I'm pondering this morning after. Like, how was it that at 3:30 on a Monday afternoon, we got a service manager that so clearly wanted to help get us to the opera house on time? And then at the Hertz rental place, we had the manager expedite us (while I observed a person or two waiting) off the lot within 15 minutes? And we secured one of the last spots in the parking ramp across from the opera house.
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