This is a feel-good story that came about because of the kindness of a stranger. It’s also a story about a baby on an airline trip.
Normally, air travelers clinch up when they realize they are seated next to a baby. Will the baby be calm? Will the baby fuss and cry the entire flight? In this case, the adult that found herself sitting next to a baby and her parents was crocheting. On the way back to Newark International Airport from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, five-month-old Romey was fascinated and the crocheting held her attention throughout the flight. Baby Romey seemed to be amazed at how quickly her seat mate, Meegan Rubin’s hands were moving.
Rubin and Romey’s mom, Kelly, began to talk during the flight. Rubin, as it turned out, recognized Kelly and her husband and little Romey from being on the same flight down to Mexico.
Throughout the trip, Kelly and Rubin continued chatting back and forth mostly about Romey, who kept eying Rubin’s craft. “It entertained her for hours of the flight, just kind of observing her,” Kelly says. “She was just so kind. She had said how good Romey was and how beautiful she was.”
While in the air Kelly and her husband, Jake, 32, who live in Hoboken, New Jersey, also noticed Rubin working feverishly on her crocheting project. They never asked about what she was making, but say never in a million years did they think it would be for them.
Then it happened. The plane landed and Rubin turned to Kelly and said, OK, I’m done.” She handed Kelly a yellow knit hat big enough to fit Romey. She told a surprised Kelly that she couldn’t help herself. The baby was so good during the flight.
“Turns out she had whipped up and crocheted this beanie for Romey in the last maybe two hours of the flight, unbeknownst to us,” Kelly says. “It was beyond kind and such a shock. Everyone around us stood up and noticed just this beautiful encounter with a stranger. It was just an unbelievable kind of moment.”
What a sweet gesture. The random act of kindness has inspired Kelly to continue to travel with her young daughter.
Going into the trip, Kelly explains she was nervous to fly with her daughter for the first time. She adds that she isn’t a great flyer herself.
“It’s just nerve-wracking going into a flight,” she explains. “You don’t know who you’re going to be sitting next to, if they’re going to be annoyed if the baby acts up, or if the baby starts to need me to get up or walk around the plane. All those things go through your head as a parent.”
She continues: “And so when you don’t have any of that, but you also have a woman who is so nice and out of the kindness of her own heart, definitely put me and my husband’s nerves to rest. It’s also definitely let me be more open to traveling with my baby in the future.”
The two women have kept in touch. New friends.
I love a good ending.