A 15-year-old girl is being praised for helping a blind and deaf passenger traveling alone on an Alaska Airlines flight last week.
Clara Daly and her mom, Jane, were traveling home from Boston, Mass., to Los Angeles when their flight was canceled. They were rebooked on another flight, where the pair encountered Tim Cook, a blind and deaf man traveling home to Portland, Ore.
Lynette Scribner, another Alaska Airlines passenger took to Facebook to share the moving encounter
“I observed a woman signing into a man’s hand, so he could feel her words,” said Lynette Scribner, another Alaska Airlines passenger. “After watching them for a few minutes, I realized the man was both deaf and blind.”
I saw this gentleman, Tim, in Boston’s Logan airport with the sister he’d been visiting. It appeared he was both deaf and blind, as I observed her signing into his hand for him to feel her words. When he came aboard the plane he had been assigned the middle seat of my row.
The kind gentleman named Eric, who had the aisle seat, graciously gave it up for him. At this point Tim was traveling alone. The flight attendants sincerely wanted to assist him, but had no way to communicate. I watched as they didn’t flinch when he reached out to touch their faces and arms. They took his hand and tried so hard to communicate with him, to no avail.
He had some verbal ability, but clearly could not understand them. Eric did his best to assist him with things like opening coffee creamer and putting it in his coffee. When Tim made the attempt to stand up and feel his way to the restroom, Eric immediately got up to help him.
The flight attendants were talking among themselves and someone suggested paging to see if anyone on board knew sign language. That’s when this lovely young woman came into the picture. 15 years old, she learned ASL because she had dyslexia and it was the easiest foreign language for her to learn. For the rest of the flight she attended to Tim and made sure his needs were met.
It was fascinating to watch as she signed one letter at a time into his hand. He was able to ‘read’ her signing and they carried on an animated conversation. When he asked her if she was pretty, she blushed and laughed as Eric, who had learned a few signs, communicated an enthusiastic yes to Tim. 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.
Huge kudos to the flight attendants of Alaska Airlines who went above and beyond to meet Tim’s needs. I can’t say enough about this beautiful young woman named Clara who didn’t think twice about helping her fellow passenger, and Eric’s instant willingness to assist as well. 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.
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
