Relatives miss wedding due to flight cancellation 1:33
(CNN) - It
was the morning of April 4, 2003, and Jennifer Lowther was crying in a corner of the Toronto airport lounge because she was going to miss her best friend's wedding.
It was early spring, but a sudden blizzard had thrown Toronto back into winter.
Departures had come to a standstill and the airport was packed with stressed out travelers and staff dealing with the aftermath.
Jennifer had to catch a domestic flight to her hometown, Winnipeg.
Its original flight was canceled and subsequent planes appeared to have the same destination.
It was too late to make the 24-hour road trip.
From any angle, it looked like Jennifer would not make it to the wedding.
Today she tells CNN Travel that she felt "devastated" by that idea.
It was about her best friend's wedding, and she was supposed to be the master of ceremonies.
Also, Jennifer, then 29, had moved to Toronto just a year earlier and had been struggling with loneliness.
She longed to spend this special weekend at home, surrounded by her loved ones.
Across the airport lounge, Chris Powell chatted with other stranded passengers.
Toronto-based Powell regularly flew to Vancouver for work and was used to interruptions.
He knew the snow would cause the most expensive international flights to cancel to be prioritized, so he rebooked on the first leg of an overnight flight to Hong Kong via Vancouver.
Now all Chris had to do was wait eight hours for that flight to leave.
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"And I have a corporate credit card, so I went straight to the lounge," he recalled today to CNN Travel.
Chris, outgoing by nature, had been chatting with other travelers in the room for an hour when he noticed Jennifer, whom he jokingly describes today as "a sad girl crying over a plate of eggs in the corner."
Chris caught his eye and asked what was wrong.
"You're killing our enthusiasm," he told her without flinching.
Jennifer was surprised, but from Chris's sympathetic expression and smile, she could tell right away that he was joking.
His sarcasm made her feel better almost instantly, despite everything.
"I found it kind of entertaining," Jennifer says now.
He pulled up a chair and told his story.
In turn, the other stranded travelers shared their stories.
One of them was going to propose to his girlfriend;
another was returning home to his family after working abroad for three months.
None of them were going anywhere.
Bonding with their shared frustrations, they settled down for breakfast and a beer or two shortly after, as the timelessness inherent in airport lounges overrode any doubts about drinking before noon.
Soon, against all odds, an atmosphere of celebration was created.
Unexpected connection
Jennifer and Chris, at the Toronto airport in April 2003, the day they met.
Courtesy of Jennifer Powell
In her early twenties, Jennifer had been engaged to a guy in Winnipeg, but had canceled everything when she realized she wasn't feeling well, and this was part of the drive to start over in Toronto the previous year.
Her forays into big city dating had been unsuccessful and, unhappy with life there, she had begun to wonder what it might have been.
Jennifer's ex-boyfriend was going to be at the wedding, and before she got stranded at the airport, she'd wondered if they could rekindle their relationship.
As for Chris, he was 34 years old and enjoyed being single.
He had never connected with anyone he could imagine settling down with.
But immediately, when Jennifer sat down at her table, Chris felt connected to her.
Jennifer felt it too.
They soon became the focus of this spontaneous gathering at the airport, holding the spotlight as other travelers came and went.
"We became the hosts of the party," Jennifer says today.
At one point, a new member of the group approached the two and asked, "How long have you been together?"
"About 48 minutes," Chris joked in response.
This soon became a pattern: Other travelers picked up on something and assumed Chris and Jennifer were a couple.
"There was an interesting connection," Jennifer says today.
"We looked at each other and said," Where have you been? "
"I don't hold onto those kinds of ideas very often, but I looked at her and said, 'Hey, this seems like this has been going on, positively, forever,'" Chris says today.
"More than this life," Jennifer agrees.
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Stranded travelers made their way to the counters periodically and inquired about the status of the flights.
Jennifer was especially determined.
As much as she enjoyed Chris's company, she hated the idea of missing the wedding.
"I kept trying to find solutions, and it didn't work," Jennifer says today.
"I think he had cried, like, every two hours."
Around 4 p.m., Jennifer learned that her last flight had been canceled.
It seemed like he was going to have to finally accept defeat.
He started crying again.
Chris couldn't bear to see her so unhappy.
"I had enough liquid courage at the time to say, 'I can fix this,'" he recalls today.
He escorted Jennifer back to the departure lounge, with its long lines of stranded passengers and nervous reservation agents.
They approached one of them.
Chris asked the agent her name.
It was Lisa.
Chris introduced himself to Jennifer and explained the situation.
"I have a question for you, Lisa," he said.
"What would you do to get to your best friend's wedding?"
"Well, I don't know. Almost anything," said the reservation agent.
"Good," Chris said.
"Let's keep that in mind. Jenn is trying to get to her best friend's wedding in Winnipeg ..."
The agent cut him off, explaining that all Winnipeg flights were canceled.
"Lisa, remember. Best. Friend. Wedding," Chris said.
"Okay, I'm open. I can hear you," Lisa agreed.
The group considered various options without success.
Then Chris explained that he was leaving for Vancouver at 9pm.
"Is there any chance that Jenn will take the flight out of Vancouver and then she can go back to Winnipeg?" He proposed.
It was a somewhat far-fetched idea.
Vancouver is two and a half hours further west than Winnipeg by plane, but it wasn't impossible.
Lisa, now determined to help them, searched her computer and came back with good news: there was a seat left on Chris's flight to Vancouver.
You could even sit them together.
And then he could book Jennifer an early morning flight back to Edmonton, and then from Edmonton to Winnipeg.
"If this works, I'm going to kiss you," Jennifer told Chris.
"You wanted to kiss me since you met me," Chris said.
Jennifer laughed.
"So he put me on the flight," he remembers now.
The two headed back to the waiting room to celebrate.
More good news followed: the other travelers Jennifer and Chris had befriended in the room were also finding solutions.
"We had survived the storm and we were all able to go do the things we wanted to do," says Jennifer.
"From then on it was a celebratory party," says Chris.
Jennifer had a five-hour layover to make in Vancouver.
Instead of staying at the airport, Chris suggested that she stay with him at the home of a good friend from the city.
"Normally I would never trust someone and go with him or whatever, but again, it seemed absolutely right," Jennifer says today.
As they boarded the flight that night, the two of them were almost euphoric.
Jennifer was on her way to the wedding and they had met.
As the flight was about to take off, the two kissed for the first time.
Jennifer says it was a "movie kiss."
Chris describes it simply as "the kiss".
"We actually kissed all the way to Vancouver, like we were in love with each other," Jennifer recalls.
In Vancouver, the two arrived at the home of a friend of Chris's.
It was 1 a.m. local time, 4 a.m. for Chris and Jennifer.
They fell asleep, exhausted.
A few hours later, Jennifer was preparing to return to the airport.
"We have to meet when we both get back to Toronto," Chris said as they said goodbye.
She accepted and they exchanged their contact details.
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A race to church
Jennifer's flight to Winnipeg was due to arrive at 1 PM and the wedding was an hour later.
It was going to be very tight.
When he sat down, he shared the story with his seat neighbor, explaining that he had to get off as soon as the flight landed, which would be quite a feat since he was right at the back of the plane.
Her traveling companion, moved by Jennifer's determination, decided that his mission was to get the message across the plane.
"He ended up sharing with everyone, practically in every seat, the story of this girl who had crossed all of Canada and back to try to get to this wedding," Jennifer says today.
When the flight landed, Jennifer jumped up.
"Run, Jenn, run!" Her seat neighbor yelled at her, and she ran down the aisle.
"Everyone had heard the story that had just been told all over the plane, so everyone let me pass," Jennifer recalls today.
Rushing through arrivals, down the escalator, Jennifer called her mother, who was going to pick her up.
"Start the car!" He yelled.
In a matter of minutes he was in the car with his parents, leaving the airport.
With the minutes remaining until the ceremony, there was only time for Jennifer to change and try to be more presentable.
"I hadn't combed my hair for 36 hours," he remembers.
Jennifer and her mother were diverted to a local hair salon, which they had known for years.
There, Jennifer got ready as quickly as possible.
"I'm changing, putting on a strapless bra, putting on a dress, trying to put on makeup and stockings, while the stylist tries to figure out what to do with my hair," Jennifer recalls.
"My dad is out revving the engine like he's the Indy 500, because he feels like it's his purpose in life to get me to this wedding."
At nearly two o'clock in the afternoon, the family stopped at the church door and Jennifer ran out.
"My friend was about to reach the altar and she sees me and stops," she remembers.
The bride-to-be ran out of the church, hugging Jennifer.
"We cried, because the whole time he thought he was not going to make it," says Jennifer.
Meanwhile, the future boyfriend panicked, thinking that his fiancée had regretted it.
But before long the bride returned to the aisle and Jennifer slipped into her seat.
He had succeeded.
As the ceremony began, Jennifer turned to the person next to her.
It was her ex-fiancé, the old love she'd wondered if she could meet at the wedding.
Now he knew that was not going to happen.
"As soon as Chris and I met, I thought, 'No, this is fate. There's something here that I have to pursue.' And I pointed out to my ex that that wasn't going to happen," Jennifer says today.
The rest of the wedding was a whirlwind of festivities.
Jennifer didn't take a moment for granted, she was so relieved to be there.
And between the toasts and speeches, she found herself reflecting on the man she had fallen in love with at the airport and who had made sure he got to church on time.
"He would tell people, 'I met this guy and he saved me. He was like my knight in shining armor.'
A second date
Jennifer and Chris got to know each other better in the summer of 2003. Courtesy of Jennifer Powell
As Jennifer celebrated the wedding, Chris prepared for his business trip and thought about the 24-hour whirlwind he had experienced.
"I've never met anyone like her," he says now.
"It was tangibly different. And I was certainly excited to see it again."
Chris was out of Toronto for the next several weeks working.
When he returned, Jennifer was also back in town.
He went straight from the airport to Jennifer's apartment for a second date.
They had exchanged a couple of emails in the intervening weeks, but Jennifer was nervous.
When Chris introduced himself, she couldn't stop talking.
"You talk too much," he said, and kissed her.
Three months later they got engaged.
"Did you meet her drinking at an airport, and two and a half months, three months later, they are engaged?"
Chris remembers how people exclaimed.
Jennifer says they ignored everything: "We had the feeling that something magical was happening and instead of thinking too much, we just got carried away."
They joined their groups of friends, met each other's families, and discovered that they shared a love of travel, nature, and music.
Chris proposed to her one night after they both returned from a concert.
Jennifer had just reflected that it had been a "perfect night."
"It was almost perfect," Chris said.
"It would be perfect if you would do me the honor of being my wife."
The two say their 2004 Winnipeg wedding was "the best party ever."
Luckily, time was on its side, and despite the fact that many guests flew in from Toronto, no one was about to miss the ceremony.
Family and travel
Jennifer and Chris on their wedding day in 2004. Courtesy of Jennifer Powell.
A few years later, Jennifer became pregnant with her first child.
It was a surprise.
At 19, Jennifer had been treated for cervical cancer and told she couldn't have children.
She was thrilled when her son was born, while Chris, who had always said he didn't want to have children, accepted this new chapter wholeheartedly.
"He's the best dad," Jennifer says.
"And as much as she didn't think she wanted children, when the kids really came, she ended up throwing herself with both feet."
His son Spencer was followed by his daughter Lauren a few years later.
"Spencer has autism, so we had to become special needs parents," Jennifer says.
"But I think we start the way we want to move on; we always try to keep laughing - humor is a basic part of our existence."
Jennifer and Chris with their children in Ecuador, during their 9-month trip around the world.
Courtesy of Jennifer Powell
When their children were nine and ten, Jennifer and Chris took a year off from work and embarked on a nine-month world tour.
The decision stemmed from a tragedy.
A close friend of the couple passed away suddenly, prompting Jennifer and Chris to reconsider how they wanted to spend their days.
"We sat down as a family and each one identified three places they wanted to see on the planet, anywhere in the world they wanted to go, and one of Jenn's was dancing tango in Argentina, and my son wanted to see blue whales in the coast of Sri Lanka, "says Chris.
The couple were concerned that their son Spencer might struggle with a lack of structure, as parents of children with autism are often encouraged to follow routines.
But Jennifer and Chris say their two children loved the adventure.
Five years later, the family continues to speak fondly of their trip around the world.
Humor, time and destiny
Jennifer and Chris say humor is part of the secret to their 18-year relationship.
Courtesy of Jennifer Powell
Today Jennifer and Chris are parents of teenagers.
The family has been locked up in Canada for 20 months during the covid-19 pandemic, facing the ups and downs of the situation with the humor and lightness that have characterized their relationship from the beginning.
More than 18 years have passed and their connection has remained strong, but Jennifer and Chris acknowledge that they have both changed a bit since they first crossed paths at the Toronto airport.
Chris says Jennifer has matured from her small town roots, but has maintained the "core values" that stem from her origins.
"Chris was overconfident and arrogant when we first met," Jennifer says, laughing.
"I loved it because I fell in love with someone who had such a sense of himself that he felt so comfortable going to talk to everyone."
"And that, like my hair, is now gone, is that what you're saying?" Says Chris.
"No, I think, it has tempered a bit, maybe over time," Jennifer says.
"But I think his sense of humor is what has always been strong throughout this whole thing."
Although the two often joke about the circumstances of their encounter - they were both in their least glamorous moments, they say - they also marvel at the coincidence of meeting in this serendipitous and romantic way.
"It was, I don't know, a cosmic alignment, call it what you want, call it destiny, but it was amazing," says Chris.
"I'm lucky it happened to me. Thanks to fate, so far everything is fine."
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