TEN YEARS AGO TONIGHT --

I was on my way back from the Kennedy Space Center after the scrubbed launch of STS-134.

It was late on a Sunday, and the flight from Orlando was full of families coming back from the theme parks. I was way back in Row 32 ... in a middle seat.

The flight landed at DCA at about 9:40pm. I turned my Blackberry on and messages began flooding in.

My eyes widened as I saw the final few at the top...

The Obama WH had lifted the lid(!) and was scrambling the pool back to the WH.

The president wanted to address the nation at 10:30pm. On a Sunday.

In all honesty, at that moment, I had two thoughts --
1-- The president, a la LBJ or Nixon, would announce he wouldn't run for re-election or was resigning, or...
2-- The Russians had launched their missiles and we all had 30 minutes left.

The plane I was on taxied interminably slowly toward the gate. The kids on board the plane were plenty fidgety, and I was worse...

I sent several messages to NY, making sure the on-duty Sun desk editors understood something big was happening. Nobody knew what. It was 9:50pm.

It would be another 10 minutes before I finally got off that damn plane.

I had 30 minutes to get my gear at baggage claim and get to the bureau -- I had already promised I would anchor our radio coverage... of whatever it was we'd be covering.

It being DCA, there wasn't much hope of me getting my bags quickly. The wait shaved another 15 minutes off the clock.

(It was expensive satellite gear, so I couldn't just leave it there...)

It was 10:15pm. I had one shot to make it to the microphone in time.

But ... of course ... there were 75 people in line for a cab outside.

By this point, we had a pretty good idea of what the news was. It was big.

So I dragged my bags to the front of the line... and took a deep breath. All I could do was ask.

As it happened, one of the greatest human beings then on the planet earth just happened to be standing there at the front of the cab line.

"OMG!" I shouted. "Gwen!!"

She turned and smiled.

"I'm Steven Portnoy from ABC, and I have *GOT* to get the next cab!"

"Yes, you do!" she said with a knowing look. "Go right ahead."

She was on twitter, of course, and was following the news.

In my crazed and befuddled state, I offered to share the taxi with her, but she declined and just hopped in the next one (duh).

I screamed "OMG, THANK YOU!!!" and off we went ...

It was 10:18pm.

The ride from the airport to the bureau was just short enough that I threw the cabbie $20, hopped out, bound into the elevator, zoomed up 5 flights, burst into the newsroom ... and was in front of the mic... at 10:30pm.

We went right on the air. I anchored five hours of live coverage.

Friends said they heard ME in cabs, as they rode to lower Manhattan to celebrate the news of OBL's death.

We won an Edward R. Murrow award for Breaking News.

It wouldn't have been possible if it hadn't been for @gwenifill's kindness, and a bit of kismet.

As a longtime fan of @washingtonweek and @NewsHour, I miss her a lot... and I am always especially grateful for that chance encounter on May 1, 2011.