Rubin Swift never expected to be stopped at the Frontier Airlines gate at the Phoenix airport and informed that he and his baby girl Ru-Andria couldn’t even board the plane. Traveling with an infant can be difficult, but Swift never expected to be told that he and his daughter couldn’t even board the plane.
Rubin just found out that he was going to be given custody of his newborn daughter in Arizona, who was located in Arizona.
The father, who is 43 years old and lives in Cleveland, Ohio, gathered his belongings and drove south to get his child and bring her back home.
At Banner University Medical Center, he paid his daughter’s hospital room a visit for the first time and started to develop a relationship with her. There, he made the acquaintance of Joy Ringhofer, a NICU volunteer who was 78 years old at the time.
After delivery, the newborn baby Ru-Andria was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for several days as a preventative measure.
Even though he had been thrown into an unexpected circumstance, Joy realized that Rubin was a loving father to their children despite the fact that he had just lost her husband.
His first marriage produced three grown children, and his second marriage to Tiffany, who was 32 at the time, produced four stepchildren.
Rubin was taken aback when Joy, for some unexplained reason, felt obliged to provide him with her contact information and write down her phone number.
Even on the day that he was supposed to depart, she volunteered to drive him to the airport so that he could go on his way.
As it turned out, Ru-Andria was unable to travel with Rubin because he required confirmation of her age before he would let her on the plane. According to the policies of Frontier Airlines, a child must be at least seven days old in order to travel.
On the other hand, getting the appropriate documents might take up to a week!
Rubin was completely at a loss for what to do when he ran into the enormous barrier at the airport. While he was waiting to pick up her birth certificate, he flirted with the notion of sleeping on the floor of the airport for many days in order to save money.
I didn’t have any money on me, and the hospital informed me that in order to receive a birth certificate, I would need to wait seven days. If airport security saw me sleeping at the airport with a newborn, they may accuse me of negligence and take the baby away from me. This gave me a lot of anxiety. I was in a bind.”
Tiffany, his wife, responded with confusion when he attempted to communicate with her.
They just did not have enough money for him to hire a vehicle and travel home, or to secure a hotel room and wait it out there till everything was resolved.
When he phoned me from the airport and told me that they weren’t going to let him travel until he could obtain a birth certificate in four days, I felt worried. “When he contacted me from the airport and told me that they weren’t going to let him fly unless he could get a birth certificate in four days, I I was concerned that he would fall asleep while waiting at the airport. It seemed as if we had exhausted all of our alternatives, and that made me quite nervous.
Rubin entertained the momentary notion of getting in touch with Joy, the NICU volunteer who had been so nice as to drive him to the airport and who had shown him nothing but compassion during their interaction.
Because he had no other choices, he dialed the number of the elderly person and took his chances.
“I said to him, ‘Wait right there. I’m going to take you home with me.’ There are a lot of threats in the world, but there is also a lot of potential for good. It was a pleasure to chat with Rubin and assist him with the baby when we were both in the hospital. I could tell that he had a decent heart just by looking at him since he was courteous and friendly.
Rubin, who owned a deli in Ohio, could not believe that Joy was ready to save him, a total stranger, and Ru-Andria while they were in such a difficult situation.
“She is white, and I am black,” I said. She is a great-grandmother who has just experienced the loss of her husband, and I am a complete stranger who grew up in the slums in the Bronx. Despite the fact that she did not know too much about me, she took me in. She didn’t care about people’s skin tones at all. She demonstrated to me that despite the insanity that exists in the world, there is still compassion.
Rubin reached out to his wife to relay the story of how his guardian angel, Joy, had gone above and above to assist him in his time of need.
She, too, was taken aback by it all. Rubin, on the other hand, did not think twice about accepting Joy’s offer since, from the moment they first met, he had a great impression of her.
“Miss Joy was as kind and kind as an angel, and she had developed a strong friendship with Ru-Andria. My daughter’s expression would brighten once she heard her mother’s voice. As soon as she let us into her home, I had a feeling that we would be friends for the rest of our lives.
During the period of time that they spent together, the dad of middle age and the senior citizen widow took turns caring for Ru-Andria and engaged in ceaseless conversation.
Joy said that she was the proud grandmother of four children, seven grandkids, and three great-grandchildren at the time.
They went for energizing walks with Ru-Andria, shopped for groceries, and even traveled to the cemetery to pay their respects at the grave of Joy’s late husband.
“I could feel the grief in her face from the loss of her husband, so at the cemetery, as we sat there with the baby, I whispered to Charles, ‘Hey, look — it’s your new granddaughter.’” There were some amazing and heartfelt moments that we shared. Since my mother passed away from cancer in 2007, Joy has essentially taken on the role of a mother or grandmother figure for me.
When the birth certificate was finally complete, Rubin and Ru-Andria were finally able to travel home, and Rubin could not wait to see his wife and their children for the first time in a long time, he was overjoyed.
But he was aware that he would miss Joy. The fact that they have kept their promise to keep in contact and continue to talk to one another through FaceTime brings joy to Joy’s life.
“We simply knew that from that day forward, we’d always be in contact with one another. We were complete strangers when we first met, but by the end, we were fast friends. Rubin is really thankful to me, and I, in turn, am extremely thankful to have been given this chance.
Rubin is aware that Joy might have easily dissuaded him from continuing their relationship. Instead, she helped the man out of a difficult circumstance by welcoming a stranger and his infant into her home and opening her heart to them both.
Watch how their inspiring story is told in the video that is provided below!