Last week, Kelsey Zwick and her daughter, Lucy, were blessed by a stranger while traveling to Pennsylvania so little Lucy could receive treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In a now-viral Facebook post, Zwick explained that a man sitting in first class on their flight from Orlando to Philly discretely offered up his seat.
“To the man in 2D,” Zwick began, “Today you were traveling from Orlando to Philly. I don’t know you, but I imagine you saw us somewhere.”
To the man in 2D. Today you were traveling from Orlando to Philly. I don’t know you, but I imagine you saw us somewhere….
Posted by Kelsey Zwick on Thursday, December 6, 2018
She noted that she was traveling alone with her daughter, pushing a stroller and carrying a diaper bag, along with an oxygen machine for Lucy.
“We had smiles on our faces as we were headed to see her ‘friends’ at CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia),” she continued. “We pre- boarded the plane, got cozy in our window seat and made jokes to those around us about having to sit by my yelling-but-happy baby.”
That’s when a flight attendant approached Zwick and told her that a customer in first class was “waiting to switch seats.”
“You were giving up your comfortable, first class seat to us,” she wrote.
The act of kindness brought tears to the young mother’s eyes.
“I cried my way up the aisle while my daughter Lucy laughed!” she recalled. “She felt it in her bones too… real, pure, goodness.”
An overwhelmed Zwick smiled and thanked the man, but she later felt the need to explain why the random act of kindness meant so much to her.
“Sooo… thank you,” she wrote. “Not just for the seat itself but for noticing. For seeing us and realizing that maybe things are not always easy. For deciding you wanted to show a random act of kindness to US. It reminded me how much good there is in this world. I can’t wait to tell Lucy someday.”
Zwick noted that she wanted to share the story to encourage others to “pay it forward” and let the passenger know how “inspired” she was by his generosity.
So far, Zwick’s post has been shared more that 450,000 times.