Brighten Your Day

Tiny gesture. Big feels.

Yesterday I was flying home after a week away. We boarded our flight and left on time, about 1 p.m., but when we reached the destination, the pilot started circling because of bad weather.

After what seemed like a couple hours, we were told they were flying us to a much smaller airport since weather in the big city was so bad and we couldn't land. Lightning, wind shear, whatever. Bummer.

When we deplaned, we were told to get in line to have customer service assist each passenger, it was a zoo. Although I had been in row 7, somehow there were about a hundred people ahead of me. Oh well, shrug ... I started to figure out it was more than one plane that had been diverted. Everybody was stuck where they didn't want to be.

People were all trying to get on the few flights leaving that evening, nobody wanted to get out of line and lose their place. Several people near me in line needed to use the restroom so we all watched the others' rollaways so they could find a restroom & return their spot in line. When it was my turn, I noticed a tiny snack and gift shop still open down the hall. I have been stranded in an airport overnight before, so I decided to get some "just in case" snacks.

The clerk said she was just closing, but stayed open long enough for me to grab a bag of chips, a candy bar and a drink.

I got back to my place in line, drank my flavored water, waited another hour or so, and kept checking my phone, only to discover I had somehow been rebooked on a flight back to my original city. Yay!

I ran to the new gate, choose a window seat, and before everyone else was even on board, I scarfed my candy bar since I hadn't eaten lunch (breakfast was 10 hours earlier). Soon, my row was joined by a woman in the middle, with a 20-something man on the aisle. She struck up a conversation, worried because she had a connecting flight and, if she made it, not long to run between gates. If she missed the connection, she'd stay overnight in the airport and had a 6 a.m. flight as back up.

She asked if I thought there would be anywhere to buy food when we arrived, which would be about 9:45 p.m.

When I told her that I didn't think many places would be open that late, the young man started following the conversation. He still had TWO connections to get to his destination and wasn't getting there anytime soon.

(The flight we were on was a short flight - less than an hour - from this small airport to the big city airport, and there was no food/beverage service.)

Then, I remembered I had brought some wrapped rice crispy almond cranberry bars and had three left. I handed one to the woman next to me, "in case she didn't find food" before her next flight. And then I reached over and handed a second to the young man.

His reaction was touching. "Really? Are you kidding me?" He hadn't eaten all day. I said, sure. Enjoy!

Then I gave the woman the last rice crispy thing and handed the young man my unopened bag of chips. He said, "what are you going to eat?"

I told them I'd be home an hour after we landed next and I already knew dinner would be waiting. But they could be traveling, or waiting to travel all night. So I was all good, and I'd be happy to know they had something to eat.

The flight crew turned the lights off in the cabin, and I happily listened to the chips crunching for the next few minutes. He needed them a lot more than I did!

And yes, when I got home a couple hours later, there was a bowl of warm pad Thai noodles and grilled chicken waiting for me.