On Sundays I generally attend the 7:30 minyan at YISE. It ends with an “add-on”; a brief study of mishnayos. I stay the several minutes it takes after the conclusion of shachris so that I can say the “extra” kaddish which is recited after the study of the mishnayos. On many a Sunday I am in a rush to get downtown and therefore contemplate leaving before the mishnayos and skipping the extra kaddish. But in the end I never leave before this extra kaddish because I feel it would be disrespectful to my mother. So I stay no matter how rushed I may be.

This morning I seriously considered leaving before mishnayos because I was traveling to Columbus for a very important meeting this afternoon and wanted to get a few things done before leaving for the airport. In the end, I did not leave and recited the extra kaddish after the learning session. As things turned out it was a good thing that I stayed and said that “extra” kaddish.

I was unable to make the 7:30 am flight to Columbus due to shachris and the next flight was at 1:10 pm arriving 2:30 pm. Since I would be arriving late for a very important meeting I was unsure whether I would be able to leave at 5:00 pm to make the 5:20 pm mincha/maariv minyan. At 4:45 the meeting was still going strong so I went on the web and confirmed that there was a late maariv at the Columbus Community Kollel. Then suddenly at 5:15pm the meeting started to break up! I rushed to my car, sped to shul arriving just as the kaddish of mincha was concluding. Though I missed mincha I made maariv.

As things turned out that “extra” kaddish this morning was not “extra” at all.