It’s the 23rd of October, 2020 and just a few hours after the burial service for my Mother. I had just finished the 50 some odd mile drive from Pampa to the Amarillo airport to fly home to Dallas. I return the rental car and make my way to security. As I reach the TSA checkpoint I show the TSA agent my ID and boarding pass. She looks at my last name, pauses for a moment, and says:
“Kind of an unusual name – Nolte. The last time I saw that name was years ago. I wonder if you’re related. There was a guy in Pampa… Quenton Nolte?”
Taken a bit aback I replied “Yes, was it Junior or Senior?”
“Oh, it had to be Senior,” then added, as she raised both hands as if she were typing on two keyboards at once, “He was amazing, he could run two paper tape calculators at once. One on each hand.”
“Yes, that was my Dad.”
My Father, who passed 13 years earlier, did accounting in Pampa and indeed could run two paper tape calculators simultaneously. He retired and moved from Pampa over 35 years ago. Unbelievable that I would run across someone in another town who knew him back when.
Coincidence? Maybe, but I think it was my Dad’s way of giving me a nod, telling me “Thanks for sending her son, I got her”.