During my recent trip to Hajj, just before landing, my mom told me that she put her daily medication in her suitcase, and kept only few pills in her purse. I knew something wrong was going to happen. Well, we arrived to the airport, with one hundred million other passengers and got all our luggage except my mother's! I looked everywhere, waited for the next flight, searched in other terminals but with no luck. I talked to the airline agent who said that it happens a lot, but “keep the hope up!” Yeah right.

The following day, I called the number they gave me to check on the status of the lost bag a hundred times, and no one answered. Not good. I started thinking of what I should do, maybe call my wife in the US, have her talk to mom's doctors and then ship the medication, or take mom to a local doctor and see if they have the same medications. Things were moving fast around us, and I started panicking.

Two days had passed and no word on the lost luggage. But, I kept hope as that airline agent told me. On the third day, a couple of our friends who were to join us later arrived to the hotel, and they too lost their entire luggage, but guess what? While they were looking for their luggage, they found a similar suitcase to theirs sitting in a corner. When they read the little name tag, it was my mother's suitcase and they brought it to the hotel with them! I couldn't thank them enough. They asked me for a phone to call the number on their claim, I told them not to bother, but to “keep the hope up!”

-- Gus M., Redmond