"Earlier this year,
Delta Airlines announced that it would be discontinuing its direct flight to Moscow from JFK this September through to at least the end of the year. I had taken that famed flight back and forth so often that Delta had become another home to me. First in the old business class configuration where my husband John and I most often sat in our favorite seats—row 5, seats A and B—and then when all the frequent flier miles ran out, in any exit row seats we could muster. The last direct Delta flight I
took out of Russia in the spring of 2014 was on a ticket purchased at the very last minute in panicked response to an emergency.
"At that time, John was in the U.S. after having been laid off from a position he had held
for ten years. I was still in Moscow, pretty broke and teaching American writing at the Humanities University, when I found out that John was being rushed to the hospital in New York City. You should come here right away, my nephew texted to my Russian cell phone.
"A friend in New York bought me a $600 ticket on Delta. I chose an emergency row seat with a lot of legroom. A Russian dude—beefy, attractive, with light blue eyes—was next to me in the window seat. Across the aisle was a kindly babushka who rarely flew and was afraid of flying. Ya baius’, she said to me—I’m scared—and reached across the aisle so I could hold her hand during takeoff."