Just finished up the first season of The Crown on Netflix. It is an impressive series. Stellar writing, performances, stellar everything. You don’t even have to be interested in the British Royal Family to appreciate this. 

John Lithgow is brilliant as Winston Churchill in this. Seeing him in this first season reminded me of the time I nearly ran straight into him at New York’s LaGuardia Airport almost three years ago. After tweeting about this, someone asked if I would write out the story. So! Here goes. 

My better half and I were flying back from Florida, December 2013. The departure gates at the airport were crowded. People were everywhere. LaGuardia is a bit crowded to begin with even on a slower day. I think we were making our way towards finding our gate just so we would know where it was. Time was on our side. It was a challenge not to walk through the crowd and people watch at the same time. It was fascinating to be in a New York area airport. I was looking left and right just getting an idea of the people who were rushing through. At the very second I turned to look forward, I came to an immediate stop. almost completely leveling into the tall person in front of me wearing a long dark coat. In that split instance, I realized it was John Lithgow.

“I’s sorry Mr. Lithgow”.

He pulled his cell phone away from his ear, replying “that’s quite alright” and went about his way.  It was about a minute later when I realized I was a step away from possibly barreling over John Lithgow in a busy airport. We would see him again a short time later, still talking on his phone while he awaited to board a flight. 

Will always have this story, and it cracks me up every time I think of it.

@WriterDann