Teen Helps Blind, Deaf Logan Flight Passenger, Reminds Us Of Good

BOSTON, MA — After a visit to Massachusetts, Tim Cook, who is blind and deaf, said goodbye to his sister at Boston Logan Airport. She communicated to him by signing into his hand. He got onto the flight, found his middle seat and prepared for his journey back home to Portland.

Enter a bunch of thoughtful passengers and flight attendants who wanted to make sure the man didn't feel so alone, including a 15-year-old girl who helped the man communicate, highlighting just how good people can be to one another.

Upon noticing that Cook would be more comfortable in the aisle, his seatmate swapped seats with Cook and then tried his best to help him with his coffee. Flight attendants attempted to communicate with Cook, letting him touch their faces and arms without flinching. Then one of them hopped on the loudspeaker to see if there was anyone who knew sign language on the plane and could help.

That's when 15-year-old Clara Daly pressed the call button and came to the man's aid.

She'd learned American Sign Language as her foreign language in school because she had dyslexia, according to a woman who shared the row with Cook later said. And she wanted to help.

For the rest of the flight, Clara would pop over to kneel in the aisle and chat with Cook by signing into his hands, helping attendants know if he needed anything, talking about life and just bringing joy to the flight, according to passenger Lynnette Scribner.

"It was a beautiful reminder, in this time of too much awfulness, that there are still good, good people who are willing to look out for each other," Scribner, who was so moved by the entire scene, posted in a missive on Facebook describing what happened.

"I don't know when I've ever seen so many people rally to take care of another human being. All of us in the immediate rows were laughing and smiling and enjoying his obvious delight in having someone to talk to," said Scribner.

And it appears to have made an impact on Cook, who told Alaska Airlines later that the flight from Boston was the best trip he’s ever taken.

As for Clara, she and her mother were actually originally planning to take a different flight to LA, but when that got canceled they rescheduled on this one.

“After the flight, Clara told me she thought it was meant to be that our original flight was canceled and we were placed on this flight, so she could be there to help Tim,” Clara's mother, Jane Daly, said, according to a blogger for the Alaska Airlines website.

But the impact of Clara and the flight attendants and seatmates didn't end there.

Less than a week after Scribner posted the story, crediting the Alaska Airline flight attendants for going above and beyond to meet the man's needs, and the 15-year-old for her special help, it had garnered more than 600,000 likes and had been shared more than 635,000 times.

"I can't say enough about this beautiful young woman named Clara who didn't think twice about helping her fellow passenger," she wrote.

A service provider from the senior living home where Cook lives met him at the gate after the flight arrived in Portland.

This good news aboard the plane comes just after the airline - for the 11th year in a row - was recognized as the highest ranked airline in customer satisfaction among traditional carriers in the J.D. Power 2018 North America Airline Satisfaction Study.

See the Facebook post here:

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