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Woman on flight sees something wrong with seatmate, stands up to clear the aisle for final goodbye

There's still good in the world.

Screenshots courtesy of Hailey Sand

Woman clears aisle on flight to help passenger see dying grandfather

Even when your life feels like it's falling apart, other people's lives are still going on as normal. Unfortunately, the world doesn't stop because tragedy strikes someone's family, but recently on a United Airlines flight, one woman had a pretty close equivalent. Hailey Ann Sand recently took an unexpected trip after finding out her grandfather was being placed on comfort care as he was nearing the end of his life.

Sand knew she wanted to be there for his final moments, so she booked a last-minute flight and headed out. What was supposed to be a smooth trip wound up being stress-inducing due to the flight landing behind schedule. The airline was aware that some passengers had connecting flights taking off in a few minutes so they made the announcement asking for passengers to extend courtesy to those with tight connections.

airplane, flight airport, airplane passenger, sky, commercial jetblue and white airplane in the sky during daytime Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

Sand was one of those with an extremely tight connection when the flight landed in Denver, but as airline passengers often do, many stood up, not allowing others to get off the plane first. It was then that the grieving granddaughter was reminded that there are still good people in the world. The woman shares in a video that she was in seat 31A and another woman, whom she didn't know was in seat 31B noticed the urgency on Sand's face prompting the woman to inquire if something was wrong. After Sand explained that she was in a hurry to catch her next flight so she could be there with her grandfather in his last moments, the stranger sprung into action.

Sand's connecting flight was scheduled to depart in 25 minutes but the aisle was completely blocked. That is, until her seatmate got everyone to clear it.

airports, airplanes, denver, foot traffic, takeoff, airport gatePeople walking inside an airport. Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

"You didn't owe me anything but you stepped out in the aisle and you announced very loudly to everybody to please step aside so that I can get off the plane in a timely manner," Sand says hoping her words reach the woman who helped her. "We landed 25 minutes before my next flight was supposed to depart, and it was a 22-minute walk across the Denver airport. We flew into gate 73ish, and I was flying out of 12. I had to walk all the way across. I just want you to know that I made that flight and I got to be there last night. And I got to tell my grandfather how much I loved him and he got to tell me back and he understood what I was saying."

The grieving granddaughter was able to be there along with the rest of her family until her grandfather passed. She continues the video with an emotional thank you to the stranger saying that her act of kindness changed her life, hoping the video would reach the kind stranger. While the video didn't reach her, the video did reach United Airlines causing several flight attendants and crew to reach out to Sand. Through some detective work, they connected her with a relative who connected her with the stranger, Katie.

@haileyannsand @United Airlines ♬ original sound - Hailey Ann

Turns out Katie wasn't just an average passenger, she's a hospice nurse who deeply understands a family's need to be together during someone's final hours. Sand tells Upworthy it look less than 24 hours to track Katie down and get in touch with her. While the flight they shared was from San Antonio to Denver, Katie just happened to be traveling from work and isn't from either city and Sand lives in San Antonio but is from Washington. The chance seating assignment seemed meant to be.

Once Sand reached her family she left her chance encounter with a hospice nurse to feel the warmth and comfort of the hospice nurses at Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake, Washington, "They did an excellent job for my grandfather in his final moments but also my whole family in helping us through a difficult time."

@haileyannsand @United Airlines ♬ original sound - Hailey Ann

Sand shares that her grandfather was "a husband of 62 years, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, a brother, a friend, a mentor. He served in the Army and worked his whole life as a farmer. He was the most hardworking man. He loved to travel and has been all over the world. He was very involved in his community, and the world would be better with more people like him in it."

While the woman hoped the video would reach the passenger that helped her on the plane, she likely didn't expect it to reach over 9 million people but since it has she hopes people leave her video with a message of kindness.

"I hope this story continues to resonate with people and inspire them to love each other more, and think twice when the flight crew asks you to stay seated so that people who have a tight connection can get off the plane. You never know why someone is traveling and it’s not always for a happy reason."

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Pop Culture

Woman learns a valuable lesson after guy ends their date and apologizes to the waitstaff

The date ended before the appetizers were even served.

Barbara NOT Barb|Twitter and Jonathan Borba|Canva

Woman learns lesson in kindness after date apologizes.

How you treat people in the service industry is often used as a measure of what kind of person you are. Arguably, the same could be said for how you treat anyone in a customer-facing job, whether it be the sales associate at a department store, the cashier at McDonald's or the janitor in your office building.

While people may think that these jobs are not skilled positions, they do require an immense amount of skill that has to be learned. The skill just isn't as valued by society as a whole, and sadly, that often leads to people treating those in customer-facing jobs poorly. But when a woman recently went on a date with a potential partner, her poor behavior towards the waitstaff caused him to pause.

The story was shared by a woman by the name of Barbara NOT Barb on Twitter with a lengthy thread about her daughter's recent interaction. Though the details were juicy, it quickly became obvious that kindness is the way to go.

Barbara's daughter works as a server at a high-end restaurant in Los Angeles, and she was asked to bring water to a couple's table in someone else's section to help out. But according to the Twitter thread, when her daughter arrived at the table, the woman at the table started berating and insulting her.

Apparently, the couple, who were on their first date, were waiting for their drink orders from the bar. If you've ever worked in a restaurant, you know that servers don't have anything to do with how quickly your food or alcoholic drinks get made. They keep an eye out for the items as they care for other tables, but either this woman didn't realize that or didn't care, because she yelled at the server for how long it was taking for the drinks. The only mistake this particular server made was being kind to a co-worker and offering to drop off glasses of water.

After the server tried unsuccessfully to de-escalate the situation, the woman demanded to speak to the manager. It's not clear if this was the woman's first date ever, but it was her first date with the stunned man at the table. Since people generally attempt to put their best foot forward on a first date, it's not surprising that the man decided to end the date. But before he did that, he gave a lesson in kindness.

Before the manager could reach the table, the likely embarrassed man intercepted him.

"He asked to close out the tab. Explained it was a first date and that the woman's behavior disgusted him. He paid the tab at the bar and then requested my daughter and the original server come talk to him. He apologized profusely for his date's behavior," Barbara wrote. "Needless to say, everyone was floored, in the best way. The woman had somehow been informed that the date was over. She walked out, head down, and was no longer talking down to anyone."

Being kind to others is one of the easiest things to do. Maybe the woman in question was having a bad day—everyone has them—but our bad days probably shouldn't bleed over onto unsuspecting strangers. Hopefully, the servers and the date got a lesson in kindness and standing up for others.


This article originally appeared last year.

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Joy

Mom traveling solo with toddler shocked by the outpouring help she got from total strangers

It all started when her flight got canceled.

@notaregularnanny/TikTok

Faith in humanity (and travel) restored.

Stories that involve air travel don’t usually restore our faith in humanity. You’re way more likely to find headlines featuring lost or stolen luggage, rude passengers or unhelpful staff. But every so often, one will come around to remind us that kindness does, in fact, exist…even 40,000 feet up in the air. And when they do appear, they simply must be shared.

In an exclusive in PEOPLE, Gabrielle G., a 27-year-old solo mom who goes by @notaregularnanny on social media, shared how she had been traveling with her 18-month-old son back home to Florida from a Fourth of July family visit in Kansas City, Mo., when her flight got canceled due to an IT outage.

This would be the first of a whole slew of unfortunate circumstances. For Gabrielle was able to rebook a connecting flight through Detroit, however, she and her son were booted off the new flight due to a spacing snafu.

This would be enough for anyone to lose hope, let alone a young single mom taking care of a child all by herself. But in that moment, Gabrielle was about to learn she wasn’t as alone as she thought.

Just as she was about to exit the plane, another mom offered to put her 2-year-old son on her lap so that Gabrielle and her child could take the extra seat. “We ended up getting a seat on that plane after all because of her,” she told People.

But the kindness didn’t stop there. Gabrielle would tell PEOPLE that even though her journey home would include a few more obstacles, like another cancelled flight once she landed in Detroit, as well as no available rental cars or hotel rooms, the strangers she’d meet along the way would help that journey ultimately be an incredibly heartwarming one.

In a now viral video, Gabrielle listed off those helpful strangers—from the old man who helped her son up to look out the airplane window, to the family that entertained him while they were stuck on the tarmac for hours, to the Uber driver who let them stay in his car while they waited for their train so they’d stay safe, and more.


@notaregularnanny Sobbing crying making this video ❤️🩹🥲 my faith in humanity was restored after this whole experience #ittakesavillage #myvillage #motherhood #solotravel #solomom #travelingwithkids #stranded #momsoftiktok #faithinhumanityrestored ♬ Outro by m83 - 𝙡𝙤𝙡𝙖

So many viewers chimed in to share how simply watching the clip restored their own faith in humanity as well.

“My childhood trauma has taught me to trust NOBODY, I cried my eyes out watching this because [of this] exchange of compassion and love by strangers! Thank you for healing a part of me!” one person wrote.

Another said, “If I’ve learned anything recently, it’s that humanity isn’t as awful as it’s currently portrayed to be. May we all take care of one another.”

Others noted how this was a prime example of how “the village” doesn’t always have to be our close friends and family. Rather, it can be, one one person put it, “the people you pass by throughout life.”

Another person wrote, “Be someone’s village! I will always offer to help keep tabs on a kiddo or play with them while a parent handles something. It takes so little effort to choose kindness, help, listen, entertain.”

Another simply dubbed this video as “hopecore,” which feels so appropo. May all our feeds, and our hearts be filled with more hopecore just like this.

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Joy

A man left a note after backing into a woman's car. Their text exchanges are peak wholesome.

Humans are just wonderful sometimes.

Photo credit: Canva, @martusameri/Reddit

Woman's reaction to a note on her car has people smiling.

People leave notes on strangers' cars for a host of reasons. Sometimes it's an anonymous compliment or word of encouragement. Sometimes it's a complaint about someone's parking. Sometimes it's a sales pitch for a car wash or legal services. Sometimes it's an apology for a woopsie—opening a car door or losing control of a shopping cart, dinging a stranger's vehicle.

Often the note is where the communication ends—but not always. When a man left a note on a woman's car after accidentally backing into it, she responded to him by text and their exchange has people feeling a bit better about humanity.

The exchange took place in early November 2024, the night after the incident, and it begins:

"Hey Dan this is Katie—I got your note on my car last night. Honestly I don't really see any damage—maybe the license plate is slightly crunched? Did you just back straight into the front? I don't see anything else that wasn't already there. Unless my bumper randomly falls off while I'm driving today I think you're good. 🙂 Thanks so much for leaving the note, I really appreciate it."

First of all, Dan could have bailed after bumping her car and not left a note at all. Katie could have ignored the note and went on her merry way since she wasn't bothered by it. Or worse, she could have bilked Dan or his insurance company for money. Instead, we get to see two strangers in a wholesome exchange characterized by goodwill, good faith and good feels all around.

Dan replied back: "Hi! I think I backed into your driver door. It wasn't too hard but it was late/dark so I really couldn't see much but it looked like I may have dented the door. I wasn't sure so I just wanted to leave my number."

He wasn't even sure if he had damaged her car, but he left a note anyway.

That's some seriously good karma there, Dan.

Katie reassured him that it was already dented, to which Dan replied, "lol 🫣 thank goodness I was like OH NO WHAT HAVE I DONE."

Three cry laugh emojis from Katie, followed by, "You're totally fine. This car has 415,000 miles on it literally as long as it runs I do not care. Hope you have a great Sunday!"

Dan shared that he had gone to the liquor store on the corner to get a pen so he could leave the note because he felt terrible about the dent. "Thanks for being so great!" he wrote, adding that her car and she were "amazing."

"Omg haha that's so nice! No worries at all," Katie responded. Then they wished one another a wonderful day. Let's just sit here for a moment and relish in how lovely and wholesome that whole thing was.

People reacted by sharing similar stories of car incidents gone right.

"I had a kid leave me a note yeeeears ago on an old Chevy Malibu I was driving, and it said he’d hit my car and dented it, and to call him. I called him and said I couldn’t tell him which dent was his 😂 but that he was a good kid. We had a nice laugh together and I still think about him. I hope he still has those ethics and has had a wonderful life."

"Once in college I was driving my beater 1995 Ford Escort during a snowstorm. I slid out of a parking lot right into a car slowly traveling down the snowy street - totally my fault. I jumped out and immediately apologized profusely. He was driving something equally beater-y, like a mid-90s civic or something. After a few seconds surveying the damage, he just said 'Look, I drive a piece of shit, you drive a piece of shit. I could really care less about this honestly, so let's just move along.' We shook hands and went about our days. 10/10 best fender-bender outcome."

"Same thing a few years ago with my 2004 Explorer at a university parking lot. Someone left me a note saying they hit my car, but not which part. Spent 15 minutes trying to tell which scratch/dent was new before I texted them to not worry about it and thanks for the honesty."

Some people tried to spin the exchange into a rom-com style meet cute, but Dan clarified in the comments that he is married. ( In fact, his wife was in the car with him when it happened—they were out on a date because of course they were.)

This simple exchange between two genuinely good people with nothing to gain from being kind hit people right in their humanity.

"You sir are what we need more of in society. Good old fashioned honest person with integrity. Good karma was returned to you for being honest."

"She's a real one, too! She could have easily taken that omission about the door and milked it for cash money or put you through an insurance claim. Both of y'all seem like excellent people. This exchange really did make me smile!"

"This short little back in forth they provided us restored my faith in humanity. Both just being honest and chill."

"What a nice post. Many people would see this as an opportunity to get money or the car fixed even if not OPs fault. But make OP pay. Love the thoughtfulness and honesty of Dan. And love the thoughtfulness and honesty of Katie!"

"Two lovely people. As you get older you learn to love these types of interactions with people more and more."

In a world where bad behavior goes viral, here's to Dan and Katie for reminding us that people are so often genuinely kind and honest.

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