Seated for hours in a cramped airline cabin with barely enough room to breathe is no one’s idea of fun, but the general discomfort is multiplied ten-fold when a fussy baby is thrown into the mix. If you don’t have music or a movie handy to drown out the noise, and the parents aren’t able to soothe the baby … well, you’re in for a long ride.
That’s the situation Rachel Yuen and her husband found themselves in earlier this week, when they were on a flight to Los Angeles. Another passenger was traveling alone with her children in tow, and despite her best efforts, she couldn’t calm the youngest.
Imagine the discomfort she must have felt, being the sole caretaker in an already uncomfortable environment, trying and failing to soothe her young son, and all the while, wilting under the glare of the other passengers.
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Fortunately, a flight attendant with four children of her own knew exactly what she was going through. Rachel was so touched by Gina Reyes’s next step that she shared the story on Facebook of true compassion in action.
Read her account below:
Last night Jared and I caught a flight to LAX on Hawaiian Airlines. As we sat waiting to board the plane, we realized this was our first time being away from our kiddos at the same time. We’ve traveled separately before. But not together and not without the kids.
Needless to say, we began to comment on all the families traveling. Making jokes how we don’t have a billion bags to carry and how we cannot pre-board since we don’t have [the kids]. But then we began to notice the mommies who were traveling alone with their babies and we began to plan out how we can offer to help being we’ve traveled so many times with the kids.
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It was on the flight, where a single Mom of three was doing her best to calm her youngest one down. Her oldest couldn’t have been more than 5 years old. I watched her turn into an acrobat, trying to sooth her crying toddler, passing a turning. (Trying) to find a position to make him comfortable. She paced the aisles back and forth and nothing could calm him down.
A couple in front of her kept turning around; giving her a stink eye. As if she was purposely trying to inconvenience them. I watched the woman in front turn around and snicker something at her children and all I could think of was “you wait until this seatbelt sign comes off…â€
Jared could tell I was getting frustrated. Not at the child screaming. Not even at the mom. But irritated that people could see a mother desperately trying to sooth her child and still lack empathy.
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Right before I could get out of my seat, this happens…. a flight attendant walks over and asked to hold her son. The mother seemed reluctant, embarrassed and at her wits end. She had tried for at least 45 minutes and nothing worked. The toddler reached out and the flight attendant rocked him… Up and down the aisle until he finally gave in.
This is true Aloha spirit.
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#HawaiianAirlines you should be proud of the people you hire who go beyond the call of duty and remind the world that kindness isn’t all that uncommon. I didn’t get her name but I’m sure someone knows who she is. To that flight attendant, thank you for your kindness. It was noticed all around that flight.
You gave a mother a moment to breathe and you have no idea how priceless this was for everyone around to see. Mahalo Nui!
The flight attendant was later identified as Gina Reyes, a military wife and mother herself!
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“It’s just that human kindness, you know? Someone going beyond just a job description,”Rachel said later. “It was a privilege for me to witness that and I took out my phone and decided I’m just going to get a snippet of it.â€
Share this sweet story of compassion today!
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