Woman's Random Act Of Kindness Toward Struggling Mom On Plane Goes Viral

If you’ve ever flown with an infant, you know how stressful it can be. Not only do you have to worry about how your child will respond to the foreign environment and air pressure, you also have to worry about how fellow passengers will react if your child is less than perfect. The disdain that travelers express toward sharing a plane with a child is palpable. You always get the side eye from someone. Always.

That’s why it’s so refreshing to read this story about a new mom’s experience with a perfect stranger on a plane. Rebekka Garvison was traveling solo with her infant, Rylee, last week to surprise her husband. She boarded a 5:30 a.m. flight, and immediately noticed the annoyed looks on the faces of her seat mates. When her child started to fuss before the plane even took off, she decided to ask to move to a spot on the plane where she’d seen two vacant seats next to each other. As luck would have it, she ended up sitting next to a woman who not only didn’t make a fuss about her crying child, she offered to hold her. The baby ended up falling asleep in her arms, and she held her for the entire flight. Here’s part of the account from Garvison’s Facebook post:

“As soon as she had her, Rylee was looking out the window and stopped crying. When we got in the air she fell right asleep and slept in her lap the whole flight until we got to our gate. She kept saying it wasn’t a problem at all and it was actually a comforting feeling for her. She even carried her off the plane and held her so I could get the stroller and carseat put back together so I wasn’t struggling to try and do it all alone.”

Garvison posted this image of her kind seat mate, Nyfesha Miller, holding Rylee. Note they are both sleeping in the second image. This is unbelievably sweet:

Garvison ends her post with this:

“Nyfesha Miller, you will never understand how happy this act of kindness has made my family. You could’ve just rolled your eyes and been irritated like everyone else, but you took her and held her the entire flight and let me get some rest and peace of mind. It brought tears to my eyes while I sat there and watched you and Rylee sleeping next to me. I just couldn’t believe how that ended up working out and how caring you were to us. Thank you SO much!!”

The post has been shared almost 66,000 times, so not only did Miller do something nice for a mother who needed it, her actions ended up inspiring thousands.

Never underestimate the power of a little kindness and compassion.