It was a hot summer’s day in Boston when 15-year-old Clara Daly boarded a plane to Los Angeles with her mom. She planned to sit back and relax on the flight along with everyone else.
But when a flight attendant made a call to see if anyone knew sign language, Clara who had been studying the practice, decided to step in and help.
Clara pressed her “call” button and the flight attendant appeared at her side. She explained to Clara that there was a passenger on the plane who was blind and deaf, and asked if Clara knew how to fingerspell.
As it turned out, Clara “totally” knew how to fingerspell, and that’s how she ended up taking a seat next to Tim Cook, a 64-year-old blind and deaf man.
Recalling the flight in an interview with CBS Evening News, Clara said,
“They thought that he might need something, and they weren’t sure how to communicate.”
Clara had only begun to learn signing a year ago, but she confidently took Tim’s hand and began to receive his requests for water, information on arrival time, and much more.
According to Clara, Tim was mainly lonely, and just wanted to talk. Being in a world where so few people can communicate with you must be an isolating experience. Tim was probably very grateful for Clara and her signing skills.
Somehow, Clara managed to stay humble about her act of kindness, admitting,
“I was just thinking, ‘Wow, this is really cool, I hope I don’t spell anything wrong.'”
The intelligent teen caught the attention of Lynette Scribner, a passenger sitting next to Tim, who was so impressed with what she saw that she shared a photo of the pair’s communication on Facebook.
In the post, which was later made private by Lynette, she wrote:
“I don’t know when I’ve ever seen so many people rally to take care of another human being. All of us in the immediate rows were laughing and smiling and enjoying his obvious delight in having someone to talk to.”
She added that at various points during the conversation “they were both laughing”, and that “his frustration was greatly reduced. You could just see him lighten up”.
In just a few days, Lynette’s post had gone viral, amassing over a million likes. She told PEOPLE that she never expected such a response, adding:
“I wrote about this, thinking I was just sharing a sweet story with my friends. Clara was so kind and genuine — she seemed to have no qualms about signing into Tim’s hands, and even though he couldn’t see her, she looked attentively at his face with such kindness.”
Even after so much attention, Clara is adamant that she was simply doing “what anyone would have done.” She added:
“It’s weird that I’m getting so much attention for just doing something that I wouldn’t have thought twice about doing.”
We think many people would argue that though Clara has a beautiful, optimistic heart, not “anyone” would have spent a lengthy plane flight communicating with a blind and deaf man.
There’s something very special about Clara Daly, even if she doesn’t know it herself! You can watch an interview with her in the video just below.
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