Story by Joan Heming (BBO: floral1930)

Some years ago, my husband and I were flying from Cape Town to Paris when, while we were in the air, Air France ground staff went on strike. Our plane had to land at the nearest airport, which happened to be Barcelona in Spain.

After a bored hour wandering around the airport, I went into a shop that had playing cards. Aha! I bought the four packs they had and headed for one of the airport restaurants.

"Anyone here play bridge?" I called out.

About 15 hands shot up.

We sorted ourselves out, cleared four tables, and began to play. No language in common, no systems in common. Some played old fashioned rubber bridge, some Acol, some just answered with a shrug ("I don't understand"), and some Goren. We didn't even have the same names for the face cards.

We kept score on the table napkins and spent four happy hours playing until our plane finally took off. We were complete strangers from lots of different nationalities, but bridge brought us together. We made friends that none of us will ever meet again, but it illustrates that if you play bridge, you will never be lonely.