He Said Nothing

I’ll Never Forget That Moment

I’ve always said that there is nothing like air travel to reveal a person’s true colors. I have flown a multitude of times with my four kids and ended many of those flights in tears, mainly due to responses from fellow passengers. One flight, in particular, stands out to me from those early days of mothering.

I was flying with my then eighteen-month and four-month-old boys. Our second flight was delayed and we were taking off at the same time that we were supposed to have landed. I hadn’t planned to be on a plane at midnight with two tired babies, but things don’t always go as planned. Almost no one was kind that day and it left me with a desire to avoid future air travel. Since then my skin has grown thicker and I’ve learned to just ignore those looks and comments.

A few weeks ago, I was on another flight that happened to be an extra difficult travel day. My three oldest children spend summers at their dad’s house, and if you have kids you know how hard transitions can be for them. I hadn’t seen my babies (who aren’t actually babies anymore) in ten very long weeks and all of our emotions were running high. There is almost nothing like hopping on a plane and trying to get back into the swing of parenting right in front of a plane full of strangers. To say that my anxiety was through the roof is an understatement.

I always do my best to keep my kids from bothering people on flights but kids are kids and sometimes they just do what they are going to do. And that’s exactly what happened on this particular flight. My sweet girl who struggles with body awareness sat next to an older man. She has some hidden disabilities; disabilities that can’t be seen on the outside. Immediately upon boarding the plane, she whacked this poor man with her backpack as she tried to set it down. He didn’t say a word. She proceeded to step on his feet multiple times while trying to find the things in her backpack. He said nothing. She munched down on the cookies the flight attendant handed out, chomping on two at once, sending crumbs flying everywhere. She brushed them off her lap and right onto his. He said nothing. I cringed. I pointed out. I tried to make her aware. And then I fell asleep.

When I awoke, the scene took my breath away. My girl had fallen fast asleep with her little head rested right on the older gentleman’s shoulder. Again, he said nothing. This spoke a thousand words.

He didn’t know that my daughter has extra needs. He didn’t know that we’d been apart for an entire summer. He didn’t know how much she needed grace. He didn’t know how much I needed grace that day. He didn’t know, yet he chose kindness when impatience surely would have been justified.

So to the old man on the plane, whose name I may never know, your colors truly shone brightly. I will never forget the beauty of this moment. You restored my hope that people can still choose kindness, even when it’s the harder choice. I’m convinced, those are the moments we need it most.

Learn more about Carly Webber through her website. You can also follow her on Instagram or Facebook.