Ch 2 We Take Flight pg 3

about Detroit Metro – but it is a real downer to the start of a trip for which we have such great anticipation.
So why am I putting myself through this torture of airports and cramped airplanes, countless waits, running for shuttles, travel with an elderly mother, crammed into uncomfortable and inhumanely tight seats risking blood clots, airborne diseases and other unanticipated horrors? I am taking my mother back home, to see a place of such influence on her life, where she spent her youth.
Mother is Edith Klemm, née Brumpreiksch. Home is a place she last saw 57 years ago. She was fleeing the country with her sister, escaping in front of rapidly advancing enemy Russian troops. Home is the cities of Heydekrug and Grabuppen in Memelland, East Prussia.
None of us could ever have even dreamed that it was even remotely possible to visit Memelland. I would have paid closer attention when the family talked about the place, but it was so remote and not like a real place I could actually visit, say like Hamburg or Berlin. We could visit our relatives in the east so I knew a bit about that area. And we accepted as fact that our relatives in the east side were stuck, never to be able to travel out of their country west, to visit places they dreamed of. Now, in such a short time everything changed, history overturned and the last fifty years erased, an entire ideology made obsolete overnight. No more tense border crossings, guard dogs, searches for decadent western printed matter, costly visa applications, absurd registration formalities upon entry and exit. No more paranoid regimes. We don’t have to exchange western money for each day we stay in the workers paradise. It all sounds so ridiculous so many

Ch 2 We Take Flight pg 1

Before the outward-bound journey was over, we’d see four airports and pass through two additional countries to get to our destination. Seeing these airports in close succession makes the differences all the more striking. At least time would work in our favor, leaving in the afternoon and arriving in Lithuania late in the evening so we could go to bed before having to set out in a foreign land.
Living in Michigan it made sense to fly out of Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Chicago’s O’Hare would be about the same distance, but a lot more traffic getting there and the connections were no better. Metro is under construction once again, so maneuvering through the airport proved a greater challenge than usual. The airport was being totally overhauled with construction sites blocking much of the airport. We spared our relatives having to come see us off; none of them wanted to come on the trip. Neither my sister nor any of my nieces are interested in travel to Europe, and especially not Germany or our relatives.
Trying to eat at the airport proved a major challenge. A vegetarian, I pretty much have lost interest eating in most places, but these airport options set new lows to even find any edible food. We arrived with plenty of time and hoped to fill the time taking it easy and eating something nice. We will be totally immobile for an entire day so didn’t need to make ourselves feel any more bloated.
I recall that Detroit got an award for having the fattest population. I now know why. Just looking at the fast food menus posted above counters where sullen staff stood as immobile as mounds of lard draped in cheap polyester, it was enough to clog our arteries and raise blood sugar levels. Long lines of people stood zombie like for the high corn syrup and cholesterol offerings. We searched among the construction chaos for anything