The Kindness of Strangers

Originally, we were going to stay home for Christmas but Dan's Mom, who'd wanted to come visit us but couldn't, invited us to go to Michigan. Since Dan had a few vacations days left this year and would lose them if he didn't use them, we made plans a month ago to take the trip.

So on Christmas Eve, we got to the Denver International Airport early (for once!) for our flight to Michigan to visit Dan's family. This was a quite a feat because we live two-hours away from the airport and we had to get two little kids ready and out the door by 6:45 AM.

Looking at the departure flight information on the monitors, we noticed that our flight was delayed for a few hours. Another person on our flight was also scratching his head and we agreed it seemed strange that the flight should be delayed because the weather was fine. So we head to our gate to find a long line of people waiting to talk with the agents. It turns out that the plane had mechanical problems and the part had to be flown in from a different airport. After many hours of waiting around, they finally canceled the flight so we had to get on a flight for the next day.

What made it bearable was the people we met while waiting and waiting and waiting... We met two other families who were on the same flight. One family had brought a portable DVD player and invited Charlie to watch the movies with them. They had a little girl about 4 1/2 years old named Maggie and a little boy about two-years-old named PJ. They were watching "101 Dalmatians" and Charlie was a little scared of the scenes on screen at the time. The little girl tried to reassure Charlie and told him she would keep him safe. After a while, Charlie decided to sit and watch the movie. The little girl sat down next to him and put her arm around him - she was "keeping him safe". Isn't that just the sweetest thing? There was another family there with two girls, one close to Maggie's age and the other close to Charlie's age. They and Maggie hit it off right away.

So while the adults tried to get the latest status of the flight and figure out what to do - whether to try and get a different flight, or even if another flight was available at all - (this WAS Christmas Eve and all flights were full) - the kids were having fun watching movies and playing with each other. It was actually very nice because we were worried enough as it was without having to try and entertain our kids or keep them from melting down.

When it was apparent that our flight would be canceled, it was too late to get on another flight. The first family invited us to stay the night at their house but we didn't take them up on their offer because we hadn't figured out what we were going to do yet. Dan had wanted to drive home but I didn't want to have to drive two hours home and then have to drive all the way back to the airport the next day. Later, the other family also extended the invitation for us to stay at their house and said we were welcome but that they wouldn't be offended if we chose not to stay with them. They left the airport before us because we needed our luggage and it took the luggage people a while to get them for us. We did decide to stay with the family because it had gotten late, almost dinner time.

The man is a firefighter and his wife is a nurse. He had written out detailed directions and gave us their cell phone number. They lived in Aurora, which is only 30-minutes from the airport. Their house was very nice with a finished basement which had the guest room and an extra child's room.

They had gotten on a flight early the next morning so they had to leave much earlier than we did but they said to just lock up when we left. We were amazed at how nice they were. They even watched Ellie for us while we took Charlie to get some dinner. The next day, around noon, they called us to make sure we'd gotten on our flight.

We were so grateful for this sweet family and their kindness to us. These people opened their home to us, mere strangers whom they'd only met at the airport. They trusted us to lock up their house for them when we left. The world is a better place because of people like them. I will always remember their great example of kindness.