An Angel at the Airport

I’m sitting on the not-so-sanitary floor of the Tampa Airport in a puddle of my own tears. Though I don’t want to leave Florida, that isn’t exactly why I’m a puffy-eyed mess at the moment. The real reason has to do with the genuine kindness and humanity I witnessed from a stranger in the women’s restroom.

For those that don’t know, my grandmother is a very fragile, elderly woman. She has dementia, and her condition has left her with insignificant independent mobility, and she is practically nonverbal. There’s a lot she is incapable of doing on her own these days. One of those things is making visits to the bathroom alone. Today, while in the airport, I ran into a boy (around my age) waiting outside the women’s restroom with a wheelchair. As I rounded the corner to enter near the stalls, I saw an elderly woman who reminded me much of my own grandma. I assumed she was the grandma of the boy with the wheelchair outside. She was struggling to support herself upright as she walked to the nearest open stall. After finishing up my business, I began washing my hands and looking around to see if the woman had left her stall yet. I saw her reflection behind mine in the mirror. She was reaching for the sink in front of her, but it was a bit far from where her fragile arms would let her touch. Just as I was planning to dry my own hands and help her along, a random woman rushed from the other end of the bathroom to help. She supported the elderly woman with a gentle hand on her back and one grasping her wrist. She did not say a word as she did it. She did not look around for any praise. The elderly woman grabbed her hand tightly and whispered a very small “thank you”, to which the woman simply smiled and said “nothing to thank me for”. She waited until the elderly woman was finished washing her hands and guided her back to her grandson, who was anxiously waiting outside. I could see the relief on his face when he saw that someone had shown his grandma some kindness and made their trip a little bit easier. The woman quickly gave a wave and disappeared, but the looks of gratitude on the faces of both the grandma and grandson did not.

With the amount of bad in our world, we forget how much good there still is. The woman helping wasn’t going to get a better seat on her flight, a cash prize, or any other reward for doing what she did. It was likely a small gesture in her own mind. For the elderly woman though, that small gesture provided a sense of relief and comfort that was so much bigger than those things.

So, yes, I proceeded to sob like a little baby on the floor of the airport. My tears blinded me as I went back to that same bathroom minutes later to get some tissues. I didn’t expect to have such a significant experience in the women’s restroom of the Tampa Airport, but I feel lucky to have seen an angel in action today.