Anyone who has ever taken a flight with a little infant in their arms can relate to the terrifying nature of the experience. Having a crying, complaining baby in the middle of a large group of strangers is not ideal.
Even so, Kelsey Zwick couldn’t have predicted how one of her passengers would react when she boarded a flight from Orlando to Philadelphia with her 11-month-old daughter Lucy.
Lucy and her identical twin Eva, born 11 weeks early, were on their way to Children’s Hospital (CHOP).
Kelsey was greeted by a flight attendant, who was bringing a letter from another passenger shortly after entering her seat. When he made a comment, she would break down and weep.
When Lucy was born, she was “very sick” and “bluish.” As a result of Kelsey’s pregnancy, she was born with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at 29 weeks. A little time after giving birth, her lungs were placed on maximum support.
Lucy and Eva were finally permitted to go home after spending many months in the NICU. Lucy remained dependent on oxygen for a long time after that.
Even while she still needed the extra oxygen when flying and sleeping at night, her need on it lessened with time. The last point piqued the interest of Jason Kunselman, a Pennsylvania resident from Mechanicsburg.
After working as an industrial engineer in Florida, he returned home to celebrate his birthday. When he spotted Kelsey and Lucy getting on the plane, he realized he’d bought a first-class ticket just for this purpose, according to The Daily Mail.
When he saw that Lucy’s oxygen machine couldn’t fit in the overhead bins, he noted it.
Jason had a plan in place before he summoned the flight attendant.
“We had smiles on our faces as we were heading to meet her ‘friends’ at CHOP,” Kelsey said on Facebook. While pre-boarding and settling into our window seats, we made light of the fact that we’d have to sit next to my raucous, but happy, baby.
Suddenly, a flight attendant told her that the kind gentleman in seat 2D was ready to switch places with her.
You were giving up your comfortable first-class seat to us, Kelsey said in her piece.
Kelsey, in fact, burst into tears at Jason’s kind gesture. As my daughter Lucy’s giggles cheered me on, I wept my way down the aisle. She felt it in her bones, as if it were real, unadulterated bliss. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t say “thank you” correctly when we switched. As a result, I want to express my gratitude. Not just for a place to sit, but also to keep an eye on everything. After witnessing us, it’s understandable that things aren’t always easy. Thanks for thinking of us and doing an excellent deed for us out of the blue.
There is so much good in our world, and this helped remind me of that. I can’t wait to tell Lucy when the time comes. In the meanwhile, we’ll pay it forward. Someone had seen them and was trying their best to help.
Sitting in the comfortable chair, I couldn’t help but reflect. There is a long way to go before we know whether we can have our own children. We were diagnosed with TTTS after getting pregnant. We had to go across the country to have a fetal procedure done while I was pregnant. Even though we weren’t sure whether they’d make it through the therapy, these women proved to be fighters! They did a fantastic job!I
As Kelsey’s article illustrates, such acts may have a cascade effect. These little acts of kindness may have a long-term impact, even if they don’t seem like much at first. As a society, we would all benefit from practicing mindfulness and committing to at least one act of kindness each week.
Please share this article on Facebook if you agree with Jason that more people should show compassion like he did.
Working together, we can make our world a better place to live.
