A poor elderly woman decided to travel business class to be closer to her son, but she was rejected by the passengers on board until they discovered her true identity.
Rhea felt embarrassed. The older woman had boarded the first plane out of the airport that morning, and she’d sat in a business-class seat where the wealthy people were.
When she entered the cabin, no one noticed her, but when she spotted her seat and sat down, all eyes turned to her. The reason was simple: she stood out from the others.
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While the other men and women present were all wearing fancy, expensive clothes, Rhea was wearing her old, shabby clothes—they were her best, but they looked drab compared to what everyone else was wearing.
The man next to her had his face completely buried in a newspaper when she sat down, so he didn’t notice her immediately. When he put his newspaper down, he looked to the side and grimaced at her appearance, then waved to a flight attendant.
“What is this?” he asked, pointing at Rhea.
The flight attendant looked a little mortified by the man’s tone, but after checking the woman’s seat number, she faced the man and replied, “This passenger took a seat from the ticket she paid for.”
The man looked like he was going to throw up any minute because of Rhea’s presence, and before he even began to speak, he unfolded a pristine handkerchief and used it to cover his nose. Then he said, “I don’t know what’s on her ticket, but I bought a business-class seat to get away from people like her. Now I just feel like I’m in a cheap alley with homeless people.”
The altercation had attracted the attention of many people in the cabin, and some seemed to support the man. A curvy woman, adorned from head to toe in jewelry, spoke up.
“If I wanted to fly with such a person, I would buy an economy ticket,” she said, and a murmur of approval went through the passengers.
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The murmur quickly escalated and led to a quarrel, which the hostess tried to calm down, but the rich people would not hear of it – the woman had to leave.
“Can’t you see she has no business being here?” said a man.
“Is this airline that low? How can someone like that pay for a business class flight?” asked another.
“We want her gone and we want a formal apology for allowing us to come into contact with such filth,” said the man next to Rhea.
He and a few other passengers stood and refused to sit down until they got what they wanted. Rhea remained seated, listening to them argue and trample on her dignity.
“I’m fine, this too shall pass,” she repeated under her breath like a mantra.
Yet she heard how they spoke of her, and it hurt her deeply that people could be so cruel. Before she knew it, sad tears rolled down her slightly wrinkled cheeks.
“Maybe I should go,” Rhea thought, then began to gather her things with shaky hands.
As she stood up to leave, she stumbled, and rather than catching her as instinct should have done, the man beside her flinched away as if to avoid being splashed with mud.
Rhea fell to her knees and accidentally spilled the contents of her purse. She began to gather her things with shaky hands, knowing she was the focus of everyone in the cabin.
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A richly dressed elderly woman who had been sleeping peacefully until the noise woke her got up from her seat and also knelt down to help Rhea.
At that moment, the cabin fell silent, and the passengers watched in amazement as one of their number treated Rhea like a human being. The first thing the woman picked up was a passport photo of a little boy.
“Thank you so much,” Rhea whispered as she picked it up.
“That’s my son,” she said with a tearful smile, still on her knees. “He’s the pilot of this plane.”
“He must have grown up to be a handsome young man,” said the wealthy older woman.
“How could I know? I had to give him up for adoption when he was only five years old because I couldn’t afford to take care of him.” As she spoke, tears streamed from her eyes, and the cabin fell silent.
“I’ve been looking for him for years, but I haven’t been able to find him. Recently, I learned that he had become a pilot, so I started going from airport to airport looking for him. Today, I found him, but the only way to get close to him was to board this flight.”
Rhea looked up at the people around her, most of whom were looking away in shame, then continued.
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“I’m sorry to make you all uncomfortable, but I just wanted to be as close to my son as possible, which is why I saved my money for this chance. Business class is closer to him, and I’ve never flown before, so I thought it would make a great birthday present for myself.”
The passengers listened to her story, and by the time she stopped talking, many were crying. Rhea finally got up and went with the flight attendant, who was eager to introduce her to her son.
“What if he doesn’t want to see me?” she asked, resisting their insistence. “What if he hates me for abandoning him?” Before the flight attendant could speak, the man who had opposed her sitting next to him beat her to it.
“You had no choice, I think he’ll understand,” he said before quickly diving back into his newspaper. He was also ashamed. Rhea left with the flight attendant to finally meet her son.
After a while, a man’s voice was heard on the plane. “This is the captain speaking… There’s a special person flying on this plane—my mother, and it’s her birthday today.”
Everyone applauded the elderly woman, and those who had ridiculed her apologized for their mistake. When the plane landed, the pilot, whose name was Joseph, was reunited with his mother, and finally, after many years of separation, Rhea held her son in her arms again.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
What have we learned from this story?
- Choose to be kind. When the man next to Rea began demanding that she leave the cabin, others joined him, and even if the woman hadn’t done anything, they may have succeeded in getting her to leave. The only person who didn’t do what they did was another older woman. She stood up for Rhea when she could very well have joined the haughty passengers, and her decision changed everything.
- Never give up. Rhea searched for her son for years but couldn’t find him; however, that didn’t stop her. She kept looking, and she was willing to do anything to meet him, including saving her hard-earned money for an expensive business-class flight. Her persistence and sacrifices finally paid off, and she was able to meet him.
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Read also: A grandmother plants a rose bush for every birthday, but three years after her death, her granddaughter finds three new rose bushes — Story of the day
This story is inspired by the daily lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to real names or places is purely coincidental. All images are used for illustrative purposes only. Share your story with us; it might change someone’s life. If you would like to share your story, email us at info@amomama.com.
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