2 Pieces of ID

When the government wants to protect the airways and they ask for ID they really mean they want their ID:  a passport or a driver’s licence, or standard government ID issued to those who have no driver’s licence.

I put my driver’s licence into the belly pouch of my fleecy, along with the boarding pass I had printed out and a receipt showing that I had paid for my luggage:  $35 or the first bag and $50 for the second bag.  “Oh you are lucky,:” said the clerk at the West Jet Kiosk.  “Your bag is 48.3 pounds in weight.  If it were over 50 pounds, I would have to charge you $100 for that bag and not $50.”  I thought to myself, “You will never know how many times I stepped on and off the scales at home with that bag, making sure that it was not overweight.”  And concomitantly, I could hear myself thinking,  “You mean I could have put another pound of books in that bag?  I am a failure at having missed that opportunity.” 

At any rate with my bags weighed I passed the papers in that belly pouch over to the clerk.  But my driver’s licence was not there.  I looked on the floor around me.  The clerk came out of her kiosk and together we were on our hands and knees, on the floor to see if it had fallen down between the moving part of the scale and her platformed booth.  Clerks came from either side of her to help look.  Rebecca tracked our path back to where the taxi let us off outside.  And she phoned the taxi cab driver to see if the licence had fallen out of my pocket in the cab.  There was just no finding that licence.  

A social insurance number card.
Note the date of expiration;
this implies that the holder is neither a permanent resident,
nor a Canadian citizen.

Image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Insurance_Number

The only other hope was for me to pull out my Alberta Health Care Card and my Social Insurance Card for 2 pieces of government ID will work as well as that one picture ID.  

But who carries around their Social Insurance Card?  

Health care card?  

Yes.  

No one asks to see my Social Insurance Card.

“I can’t let you  on the flight without your picture ID or 2 pieces of government ID,” said the clerk.  “And you will loose what you have paid for the flight, since it is an economy seat,” she said. 

The dollars didn’t seem to matter to me.  The weakness in my knees was from my mind racing ahead to figuring out how an Albertan can get her driver’s licence re-issued on a Sunday in Victoria BC, or even on a Monday for that matter.  And it is not like I can just hop on the Greyhound and get home anymore. 

Rebecca was at the airport as well, flying out to Australia.  We had come in the taxi together.  “I have to leave you now, Mom.  My flight is ready to go.  I will phone and have Steve come out to get you.”  And off she ran for her boarding gate.

Now I didn’t sit down and cry.  I did sit down dejected having planned every detail of getting home so carefully – right up to how many pounds of book I could carry with me.

I was on the phone calling Wyona to cancel her pick-up for me on the Calgary end of the flight when one of the West Jet employees who had been trying to find my lost ID came running up to me.  “They found your ID.  It was turned in at the final boarding gate just now.  Since your luggage has already been weighed, I will put it on the carrier.  You start running right now to get through security.” 

I don’t run that well anymore, but I am a fast walker.  At the end of the security check, I was met by another West Jet employee, who pulled my carry-on for me and led the way to the plane, ushering me on and putting my baggage above me in the overhead bins and then the doors of the plane closed.

I thought I had enough adrenalin to keep me from sleeping for the next couple of days. 

Many people deserve thanks.  The WestJet employee who received my driver’s licence since she had now gone down to the other end of the airport to hep check people onto the flight and thought to herself, “Isn’t this a picture of the woman whom we were just helping at the entrance to the airport, and who was telling us her ID is lost?”  Thanks to Steve who was already on the way to the airport to pick me up and then turned around to go back home without me.  Thanks to Rebecca who had checked with security, with the commissionaires and who had retraced our steps numerous times.  Thanks to Wyona who still came to get me at the airport after hearing yes meet me, then no don’t meet me, then yet, meet me.

The reason for me to come home is that Tuesday was my appointment for the Pre-Admission Clinic for my hip surgery.  Today, the phlebotomist took  five vials of blood before my appointment and after looking at the results the Internal Medicine Specialist told me, “Your blood work looks good.  Your heart looks good.  Good luck with your new hip.”  Oh sweet new hip-to-be.  Oh sweet lost-and-found driver’s licence.  As a precaution, I am going to put together two pieces of alternative government ID in my wallet, for having a driver’s licence fall out of one’s pocket could happen to anyone.