Where in the world is Zelma Ziegenhorn?

I remember when I was in college and even for years after I had graduated from college, after wrapping up a trip to visit my parents they would always ask me to give them a call when I arrived back home, just to let them know that I arrived safely.  I thought that they were being silly, didn't they realize that I am an adult and that they don't need to worry about me, it's just a three hour drive, no big deal. And because I thought that they were overreacting and being so silly, I usually forgot to make that call.  I am a horrible daughter.

Now I think that I am beginning to know how they felt, and I am sure how they probably still feel to this day.  My mom (Zelma, the one from the title) is currently somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on her way to visit us here in Bangalore and I am terrified.  I sat bolt upright in bed this morning at 5 AM and since then I have been  continuously trying to calculate the time differences between India and the US, then India and London (where she has a connection) and stressing all the while hoping that everything is going well for her.  I know logically that she is a grown woman who managed to raise 8 kids and that she is no dummy, she'll be just fine, I should relax.  But my heart is shouting that I should be with her to help, she hasn't travelled often and she has never left the US, let alone gone half-way around the world and I just can't convince myself to stop worrying.  I have spent most of the day near my computer so that I can check e-mails and monitor her flight progress, I know that the plane took off from Chicago eleven minutes late and that it is supposed to land in twenty six minutes, just six minutes late.  I have calculated that she will have 3 hours and 44 minutes to make her way to the new terminal in London, Terminal 5, the terminal that had its disastrous opening in March.  I then stress for a few minutes wondering if they have all of the kinks worked out and will she make it to the terminal okay.

Seven minutes until she lands now (sorry, I had to run off and do some work).  Have I prepared her for immigration and customs in Bangalore sufficiently?  I forgot to go through that with her and had to write an e-mail the day before she left trying to detail the process, did I forget something?  But why am I so worried, she is a smart lady who can figure these things out on her own.  Now I understand, you worry because you are powerless, you have tried to inform and give all of the help that you can and then you have to just trust that everything will work out, that it will all be fine in the end and that all of the worrying was for nothing.  But you worry really because you love.  Can you love someone and not worry about their safety, their happiness, their well-being, even when it is out of your control?  I don't see how, and I have no idea how my parents have managed to keep sane when they have 8 kids and now 7 grandkids to worry about.

Yay, she's landed safely in London (at least according to British Airway's web-site and assuming that she made it on the plane in Chicago to begin with, oh God, now I have something else to stress about)!!!  Onto Terminal 5 Mom, Bangalore dead ahead!