In a world so often plagued by news of doom and gloom, it's nice to be reminded that - sometimes - human beings can do some amazingly selfless things.
Last week, while on a flight from Boston to Los Angeles, one teenager proved that there is still good in the world when she aided a blind and deaf man who was having some difficulties during the flight. Clara Daly, a 15-year-old girl, used American Sign Language in order to communicate with her fellow passenger, Tim Cook.
In a post on Facebook, another passenger, Lynette Scribner, described what she saw during her journey from Massachusetts.
"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," she wrote.
"When he came aboard the plane he’d been assigned the middle seat of my row. The kind gentleman 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. The man who’d given up his seat did his best to assist him with things like opening coffee creamer and putting it in his coffee."
It soon became clear that Tim would need some extra assistance to get comfortable during the flight so, while he was in the bathroom, his seatmate asked around to see if anyone could help him. The flight attendants put out a call for anyone who could speak sign language - and that's when Clara stepped in.
"She learned ASL because she had dyslexia and it was the easiest foreign language for her to learn," Lynette explained. "For the rest of the flight she attended to Tim and made sure his needs were met."
When nobody else could help out, this 15-year-old took it upon herself to make sure Tim was alright.
"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 the seatmate, who’d 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 went to [Tim] a total of three times, once to get him water, another to tell him the time, and the last hour of the flight to just talk to him," Clara said.
Everything they spoke about took some time to convey, as Clara had to spell out each word letter-by-letter in order for Tim to understand her properly. Nevertheless, she was happy to whatever it took to make sure that Tim enjoyed his flight as much as anyone else onboard.
"I can’t say enough about this beautiful young woman named Clara who didn’t think twice about helping her fellow passenger," Lynette concluded. "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."
It just goes to show, then: even when the world is facing tough times, there are some good people out there who know how important it is to show humanity.
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