While I completely agree with all of the comments above, I will say that the AA reps she dealt with in New York could have given her some information about what was happening, at the very least. I'm quite sure that they could have located a Spanish-speaking employee at JFK with very little effort. They were not going to assist her in all of these activities, but they could have given her some idea of what they were giving her, what it was for, and what she was expected to do the following day.
Beyond that, I'll have to echo - OP, what were you thinking?
Cheers.
I think the OP was asking for problems, sure, but thanks for the voice of reason. With all due dressing-down of the OP already done, they did get tickets that had dates and times printed on them and even in 2009 I don't think it's too much to expect that an airline might actually sell you tickets for flights and then actually fly them rather than send you to a hotel.
Yes we all know it happens, but I hope we haven't become such jaded flyers that we forget that really airlines are *supposed* to actually send you to where you're going pretty close to the dates and times they promised. Weather is weather, but even so. When things go wrong the airline should at least try to help as best they can. The old and infirm should not be banned from international travel, and I'd venture to say that on ANY flight where different languages are spoken on each end you'll have a very large number of people flying who don't speak one of those languages.
If you spend a lot of time traveling (like I expect most of us on FT do) I'm sure you'll agree that Americans in foreign countries don't have a very good track record of speaking a word of the local language, and have seen plenty of issues where an American is somewhere with a problem and can't communicate whatsoever until someone speaking English shows up. Regardless.
But you hit on the most confusing part of all. This all happened in JFK? It seems to me that it would be impossible NOT to find a spanish speaker around if you tried. It's JFK after all, a huge international airport serving dozens of locations where Spanish is predominant. Two of them being Miami and Queens, NY.
And with a flight to MIA cxl'd it's just inconceivable that there weren't a dozen, maybe 100 people also affected who speak both languages fluently.
Where I'm going with this is I wonder if grandma is the type with a little pride involved in asking for assistance. How could an older woman in a wheelchair be sitting there, with AA employees plus the other displaced pax flying to MIA, and not find a fluent Spanish speaker willing to give her a hand? It sort of boggles the mind.