I often have encounters that are instigated by the Boss and this one has such beauty in the cause and effect that I feel the need to share. This event is from October 2015.
With my monthly visit to Lubbock done I find myself in the airport ready for my return flight to Dallas. It is my turn to board and as I walk down the jetway I notice the woman in front of me struggling with the bag hanging on her shoulder. To fully understand, she is tiny, barely 5ft tall and the cancer (as indicated by the signs of the chemo she is undergoing) has taken her body to almost nothing. I softly grab her bag and ask if I can help her with it. She allows the help and we board the plane. She picks her seat and I place the bag in the overhead just above her. I find a seat several rows back, and as I sit, the gentleman next to me nods and murmurs “you did good”. Being acknowledged for actions such as this has a tendency to make me feel uncomfortable but for some reason this time it did not.
The flight takes off, lands, taxies, and parks and the passengers start filing out. The woman looks up at the overhead with a bit of concern and I have the opportunity to step forward across the three rows that separate us to quietly tell her I would get the bag if she would wait and I go back to my row. The people exit, row after row, until her row is next, she stands up and waits, knowing there are three more rows of people waiting to deplane between her and me. I wait for the next few rows to move… and no one does. Everyone in the three rows in front of me are waiting. The man sitting across from me looks up and says ‘get going’. I step up, get her bag and walk her off the plane to her waiting ride.
Were the three rows of people all continuing to the next destination? Probably some, but for those that were not, some unspoken agreement between them gave her the gift of not carrying her bag a bit further.
Copyright © 2024 G. Steven Nolte – Rights for non-commercial reproduction granted: May be copied in its entirety, but neither retyped nor edited.