My Mother Got Stuck in an Elevator!

Ohmygosh, Blogging Friends, Big News!

My mother, my sweet mother, the mother you’ve all met & heard about, just got stuck in an elevator in her condominium in Fort Myers Beach!

She just called with the exciting news!

“Oh, Mom, Wow,” I said, “WOW!  You got stuck in an ELEVATOR?  What happened?  Oh this is the BEST blog ever!”

Mom said, “Oh, Kathy, here’s what happened.  Dad and I were preparing to go to church with Jeannette.  You remember Jeannette, right?  Dad and Jeannette went downstairs and were waiting for me.”

“I got in the elevator.  From the sixth floor, you know.  Pushed the button for the lobby and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  The elevator didn’t move.  I pushed the buttons to open the door.  Nothing happened.  I waited some more.  Finally decided to call 911 from the phone in the elevator.”

Regular readers of Lake Superior Spirit will remember that my mother was called by the Nicaraguan Authorities to account for her Luggage in our recent trip to Central America. Please read this blog to hear of her adventures.

My mom and dad at condo, on boat, circa 2009

On Sunday, down in Fort Myers Beach, at the condominium where Mom and Dad enjoy Florida winters and, sigh, how I wish that I could fly down one more time in March to be with them, sigh, sigh, oh it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, but don’t miracles happen all the time?…   On Sunday, my mother prepared to descend in condo elevator to the ground floor where Dad would drive her and Jeannette to the Presbyterian Church mid-Island…but the Elevator refused to Cooperate.

It stopped.

Stayed there.

Wouldn’t move.

Long moments followed.

She called 911 on the handy elevator emergency phone and calmly explained her predicament.  (You gotta love my mom!  She is so calm & collected for a woman of almost-80.  Shhh, I didn’t say that about the age.  I wouldn’t divulge it, no, without her permission.  Please wait one moment while I call Mom.)

911 asks her if she’s claustrophobic.

No, she says calmly, yep, she’s my mom, she’s sooooo cool.

A view from inside the condo. On the 6th floor. Overlooking the Magnificent Back Bay.

(I probably would be gasping for air while penning notes in the small notebook in my purse, awaiting Death’s imminent arrival…writing a blog, of course!)

They ask her to please, kindly, stay on the line.

They check the location of the nearest fire department.

How fortunate!

Right up the road from said condominium.

They keep talking with her.

“I’m a little nervous,” my mom admits.

(No!  Not my mom!  Not my heroine, my elevator mama, cool, calm, and collected…)

The fire folk arrive after fifteen long minutes pass. (We don’t think they put on flashing lights and loud sirens, though.  After all it was just an elevator mishap, not a kitchen fire or heart attack victim, thank goodness.)

They pry open the door, releasing the trapped mama.

She alights.

She takes the second elevator and calmly joins my dad and Jeannette on the first floor.

The other condo folks gather ’round.  Others share that they could not, would not, have been able to handle this with the calm aplomb of my mom.  They tell her so.

She is instantly famous–or is that “infamous”?–in the small condo circle, a Survivor of Stuck Elevators, an instant celebrity.

My parents nod calmly, I’m sure, and proceed to church.

Me, at the condo pool. Where I would like to be right now, should the Universe agree.

I listen, breathlessly, to her account.

“Did you go to church to thank God for rescuing you from the elevator?” I breathe.  “Ohmygoodness, this is the BEST blog ever!”

“Dale,” she says in the background, “All she can think of is the blog!”

My dad laughs.

“Yes,” she continues, dead serious,  “I did thank God for rescuing me from the elevator.”

I am thanking God, too, Mom.

Phew!

She was rescued!  What luck!  What joy!

(And now I have the BEST blog to share with all of you, isn’t it true?  Aren’t you glad Mom called with this story?  And she was rescued so magnificently?)