No matter who you are, getting ready to fly is never an entirely pleasant experience. There’s the stress of getting to the airport on time, the cost of travel and the chance that something unexpected may derail your carefully detailed plans. Although these issues are hard enough for grown adults traveling on their own, things get even more complicated when we try to travel with our children.
Beyond that, flying with a baby is a world of its own.
A young father named Ruben Smith was recently flying from his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio to Phoenix, Arizona to pick up his newborn daughter.
Smith’s had just gotten custody of his baby girl, Ru-Andria, and was flying to Phoenix to pick her up and bring her back with him to Cleveland. After getting her from the hospital, Smith and Ru-Andria—who was only four days old—made it to Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix and everything was going smoothly. Because his daughter was so young, Smith brought a doctor’s note with him from the hospital ensuring the flight staff that his daughter was safe to travel.
Still, the airline had its own travel policy.
Despite the fact that Smith had a note, his airline had a policy that any child under seven days old was not allowed to fly.
Because Smith was not at home and didn’t know the area, he was understandably concerned about what would happen to him and Ru-Andria. After all, it would be a full three days in Phoenix before the airline would let him fly home! As he was trying to figure out what to do, Smith thought back to the kind elderly woman he had met at the hospital when he picked up Ru-Andria.
Having nowhere else to go, Smith picked up the phone.
The woman he called was Joy Ringhofer, a volunteer at the hospital who had held Ru-Andria right after she was born.
Although whatever had passed between Ringhofer and Smith had been mostly unspoken, both said they had felt a warm connection. When she got a call from Smith who explained the situation, she immediately made up her mind. Smith gave an interview to Inside Edition describing what happened next:
“‘‘I’m coming to get you and I’m gonna take you home.’ So I’m thinking, taking me home, she’s going to drive me back to Cleveland! But she actually brought me to her house.”
Through it all, Smith says Ringhofer showed him and his baby the best care and kindness they could’ve asked for.
During their time with Ringhofer, Smith and Ru-Andria were able to book another flight and make all the necessary arrangements to travel once again. Though the connection these two shared was brief, both said that they would miss one another when it was all over. Ringhofer was particularly taken with adorable little Ru-Andria:
“She’s just beautiful and wonderful. She’s been so good and I’m going to really miss her when she’s gone.”
To make the process easier on the family, Smith’s airline, Frontier, also waived all the additional fees attached to rebooking the flight.
Above all, Smith’s touching story shows how important it is to be kind to others—and that hope exists in the most mysterious places. Ringhofer and Smith probably would’ve had much in common in any other context, but because of the flight mishap, they’ve now shared an experience they’ll both remember for the rest of their lives. For his part, Smith says he’s very grateful for everything:
“She could’ve said, ‘It’s your problem,” and hung up the phone. So, you know, I thank her, I think God for her and the staff at the hospital.”
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