The Airport Stranger I’ll Never Forget

A reading edition of Corey’s original episode, lightly edited for readability. Listen to the story →

I once sat next to a man crying in an airport, and my first instinct was to move away. And I'm not especially proud of that, but it's true. A few years ago I was sitting in the Las Vegas airport waiting for a flight home. I'd been there for a conference, and it was only a couple of weeks after the tragic shooting in Las Vegas.

The whole trip had left me a little more reflective than usual. I got to the airport early because I was hoping to catch an earlier flight home. That didn't happen, so I found a seat at the gate, opened my kindle, and settled in to wait. A couple came and sat down next to me.

After a few minutes I noticed the man was crying, and I don't mean just a quiet tear or two. He was really hurting. His wife would put her arm around him and he would try to pull himself together, and then he would start crying again. And I have to admit, my first thought wasn't how can I help this guy?

My first thought was, this is uncomfortable. I was trying to read, and I didn't know what happened. I didn't know if I should say anything, and honestly, part of me thought about moving to another seat. So I texted my wife at the time and told her there was a man sitting next to me who was crying.

And I wasn't sure whether I should say anything. She suggested something simple. Basically, she said, let him know you can see that he's upset and ask if there is anything you can do. That gave me enough courage to put my book down, and I reached over, put my arm around him, and ask, Is there anything I can do to make your day better?

He looked at me and he just kept crying. His wife leaned over and explained that they had just gotten word that his mother was dying. She had taken a turn for the worse, and they were trying to get home to San Francisco in time to see her before she passed away. And in that moment, everything changed.

This wasn't an uncomfortable stranger sitting next to me anymore. This was a son who was afraid he might not get a chance to say goodbye to his mother. His wife needed to step away and make some phone calls to arrange for someone to pick them up when they landed. She asked if I would sit with them and I said yes.

And when she walked away, this man, a complete stranger, leaned into me, buried his head against my chest, and cried. And I just held him. There wasn't anything I could say that was going to fix what he was going through. There are some things in life you simply can't fix.

Sometimes helping someone isn't about finding the right words. Sometimes it's just about making sure they don't have to hurt alone. When his wife came back, I went over to the gate agent and explained what was happening and asked if there was anything they could do to help this couple get on a plane a little sooner. The agent immediately stepped in and arranged for them to board early.

A little while later, as they were getting ready to leave, the two of them came over and hugged me. They were crying, and by that point so was I. But then I looked around the gate area, and several other people who had watched everything unfold were wiping tears from their eyes too. And that may be the part of the story I remember most.

A few minutes earlier, we had all been strangers. Everybody was doing their own thing, looking at phones, reading, waiting for flights, trying to get somewhere. But for just a few minutes, all of that disappeared. We had all shared in something together.

The pain of one stranger had reminded all of us that there was another human being sitting right next to us. That experience taught me something I still think about. Compassion doesn't always begin with a feeling. Sometimes compassion begins with a decision.

A decision to look up, to put the phone down, to close the book, to notice the person next to you, and maybe just ask, what can I do to make your day better? Because the truth is, every day we walk past people who are carrying things we know absolutely nothing about. Someone may be grieving, someone may be scared, someone may be dealing with a family crisis, and someone may feel completely alone. And most of the time, they're not wearing a sign telling us what they're going through.

So for this something good Sunday, maybe that's the challenge. Look for one person this week who could use a little kindness. You don't have to solve their problem. You don't need some perfect piece of advice.

You may not even need to say very much. Sometimes the greatest gift you can give another person is simply letting them know I see you. I'm here. And you don't have to go through this moment alone.

I'm Corey Moser, and that's something good Sunday.