[mmdwalsh]

Thank you very much. I will pursue it. I didn't know if I was being unreasonable but it sounds like I am not. It is very difficult for my stubbornly independent parents to accept wheelchair transportation and until my father broke his hip, he would not accept that this was necessary. The staff the does the wheelchair pushing has been very kind, but the process tends to infantilize mentally competent adults-one time I had to watch as the staff put name tags on them, like they were unaccompanied minors and I knew how much they hated it (but they were very gracious and tip the attendants very well). I guess this wish to continue to be independent competent adults made them unwilling to go back to the gate to say they couldn't do two flights of steep narrow stairs (in addition to the fear that they would be told that if the couldn't do it, they couldn't fly home that day)
Again, than you all