A baby was crying on a plane, so a stranger did something incredible
Last Thursday, mom Rebekka Garvison was having a really, really bad day. But one stranger stepped in with a random act of kindness that not only provided Rebekka with a moment’s peace, but with a new friend.
Rebekka recently took to Facebook to write a post commemorating the (then) stranger, Chicago resident Nyfesha Miller. The post has struck a chord with moms and travelers alike and has been shared thousands of times for the best reason.
Rebekka started her post by explaining her situation: she had boarded a very quiet morning flight to Atlanta from Chicago with her baby daughter, Rylee. It was Rebekka’s first solo plane ride with her new daughter, and the couple next to her looked very peeved that they had to sit next to a baby. Eventually, Rylee started crying, and no amount of comforting would console her. Rebekka knew she had to do something. “I decided to ask the other flight attendant if I could move up [two] rows where there were [two] empty seats next to each other and I’d have more room to do stuff,” Rebekka explained in her Facebook post.
It turns out that these two empty seats were next to Nyfesha, who had just started to doze before realizing that the Garvisons had been moved next to her. “I had no idea a wailing baby was going to wind up next to me,” Nyfesha admitted to MLive. “My initial reaction, in my head, was ‘oh my gosh, how did this happen to me? I didn’t even look over right away.”
It’s an understandable reaction — crying babies aren’t exactly fun to sit next to for a long airplane ride. But it was clear that Rebekka was doing everything in her power to calm down her daughter, and nothing was working. Nyfesha, who has three children and one stepchild of her own, could empathize with Rebekka’s plight, and decided to step in. “I thought: ‘Baby feels what mom is feeling, and baby is not going to stop crying,” she told MLive. “‘If I don’t help her, that baby is going to be crying the entire flight.’” So Nyfesha asked Rebekka if she could try calming the baby, and Rebekka said yes. “As soon as she had her, Rylee was looking out the window and stopped crying,” Rebekka wrote in her Facebook post. “When we got in the air she fell right asleep and slept in her lap the whole flight until we got to our gate.”
It was a wonderful situation: Nyfesha missed holding a baby and was happy to do it, while a very exhausted Rebekka was entirely grateful for someone else to take a turn with Rylee. They even ended up exchanging telephone numbers. “[Nyfesha] kept saying it wasn’t a problem at all and it was actually a comforting feeling for her,” Rebekka continued in her post. “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.”
After the two became Facebook friends, Rebekka posted her thanks to Nyfesha, which has been shared over 80,000 times. “It was all divine order,” Miller said. “A little kindness goes a long way.”
What a beautiful story and a wonderful example of creating a positive situation out of an uncomfortable encounter. It’s easy to get frustrated when you hear a baby crying, and many jump to blaming the parents or judging them for bringing their child at all. However, these things are unavoidable for many new parents. Not only has Nyfesha set a beautiful example for how to treat new mothers and crying babies, but the two have become fast friends. What could be better than that?
(Image via Facebook)
