Flying with a baby is a difficult task. You have to remember all the essential items that you must take, and of course the fear that you’ll have to deal with constant crying and screaming throughout the flight.
But one mother from Florida was getting ready to board the flight with not only her baby and all the bags, but also with an oxygen machine.
When she boarded an American Airlines flight from Orlando to Philadelphia on December 6th with one of her 11-month-old twins, she didn’t know that someone was watching her and was about to turn her flight into a memorable one.
Kelsey Zwick traveled to a children’s hospital in Philadelphia with her baby Lucy, who needed oxygen at night and during the flight. She and her identical twin Eva were born 11 weeks earlier and Lucy suffers from chronic and severe kidney disease as a result of blood transfusion among fetuses, a complication of pregnancy.
As soon as one of the passengers saw Kelsey board the flight with her baby he immediately got up and told one of the flight attendants that he wanted to give the mother his first-class seat.
After this extraordinary deed, Kelsey wrote a post on Facebook to express her gratitude to the generous stranger. Her post became viral and received more than 400,000 likes.
“To the man in seat 2D. Today you were traveling from Orlando to Philly. I don’t know you, but I imagine you saw us somewhere. I was pushing a stroller, had a diaper bag on my arm and also lugging an oxygen machine for my daughter. We had smiles on our faces as we were headed to see her “friends” at CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia).”
“We pre-boarded the plane, got cozy in our window seat and made jokes to those around us about having to sit by my yelling-but-happy baby. The flight attendant came over and told me you were waiting to switch seats. You were giving up your comfortable, first class seat to us”, she wrote.
“Not able to hold back tears, I cried my way up the aisle while my daughter Lucy laughed! She felt it in her bones too… real, pure, goodness. I smiled and thanked you as we switched but didn’t get to thank you properly.”
“So… thank you. Not just for the seat itself but for noticing. For seeing us and realizing that maybe things are not always easy. For deciding you wanted to show a random act of kindness to US. It reminded me how much good there is in this world. I can’t wait to tell Lucy someday. In the meantime… we will pay it forward..”
Zwick’s passionate thank-you post was shared more than 500,000 times.
She passed it forward
“When the stewardess mentioned that the first-class man wanted to change seats, it took me a moment to understand why, when it came to me that a stranger wanted to give us such a gift, I couldn’t stop the tears”, Kelsey said. “It was a kindness from a man that is like ‘I see you and that’s what I can do for you'”.
His good-hearted kindness made Kelsey “reflect” and want to pass it on.
We hope that this kindhearted act will inspire others to pay attention to people around them and help in any way they can.
Please share the story to honor the good souls who help others.