Stranger on a Plane Touches Baby - and Mom Rejoices!

”

» get Patch Chicago stories by email

A 6 a.m. flight with a crying baby sounds like a nightmare. A new mom unable to stop her newborn from crying was entering just such a nightmare on a flight from Chicago to Atlanta, and passengers were giving her the evil eye before the flight even took to the air.

Then, something amazing happened.

Rebekka Garvison was flying from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago to visit her husband, an active-duty Army firefighter, when her 4-month-old girl, Rylee, started getting fussy on Sept. 24.

The couple sitting next to her were particularly annoyed, Garvison wrote in a Facebook post: “I could tell by their body language sitting right next to me that they weren’t thrilled about sitting next to Rylee.”

In her own words:

I decided to ask the other flight attendant if I could move up 2 rows where there were 2 empty seats next to each other and I’d have more room to do stuff. She said yes and next thing I know I was sitting next to this amazing woman! I’m not sure if she could tell how stressed and upset I looked or what, but she turned our day completely around.

The other woman, Nyfesha Miller, of Chicago, asked if she could hold the baby. And little Rylee stopped crying. Miller held the baby through the entire flight, letting the harried new mom get a little rest. She even helped the mom deplane and get settled before handing Rylee, now a total bundle of joy, back to her.

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.

Garvison, who lives in Michigan, says she now counts Miller as a “lifelong friend.