The kindness of strangers: a gentle flight attendant made me feel I wasn't alone

I'd completely forgotten it was my little sister's 40th birthday, so that morning I hurriedly arranged to send some flowers to her house. She died before she could receive them. My sister died at 11am and I got a text from the florist saying they'd delivered the flowers at 11.30am – how ridiculous. They must have sat on her doorstep for days.
I got the call as I was walking through the doors at Emerald airport in Queensland, about to fly home to Brisbane. My stepdad rang me and said, 'I need to talk to you about something – your sister's died.' I was like, 'What? What do you mean?' I told him I was about to hop on a plane home and that I'd call him when I got on the ground. I hung up, stunned.
I kind of held it together until we had to walk out to the airstrip, when I realised I was walking towards my sister's death. It was horrible. I sat down on the plane, sobbing. One of the flight attendants knelt down next to me and asked if there was anything he could do to help. I said, 'My sister has just died, I don't think anyone can help.' He just held my hand and said, 'We'll get you back to Brisbane.'
Related: The kindness of strangers: I was crying at the airport carousel, then a couple offered a simple solution
He didn't try to tell me everything will be all right, because it clearly wouldn't have been. Just, 'We'll get you back to Brisbane.' Throughout the flight he brought my water, checked in on me and helped me get off the plane quickly when we landed.
One might say that's his job. But it wasn't, actually. It was so above and beyond what he needed to do as cabin crew, especially on a short flight where everyone's just trying to get it over and done with. He was really gentle, kind and sweet. If he hadn't been there I would have just sat there sobbing on my own – certainly the person sitting next to me didn't engage at all, not that I blame them for that.
The flight attendant made me feel as though I wasn't alone on that plane. When I think about my sister now, I think of him.
If you're having trouble using the form click . Read terms of service and privacy policy

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

2 hours ago

• Yahoo

"I Didn't Know How Seriously My Parents Would Take That": 17 Times Kids Told Silly Little Lies That Spiraled WAY Out Of Control

It's normal for kids to lie sometimes. It's how they learn important life lessons and test boundaries, but sometimes a little lie can have consequences that kid-brains never saw coming. Recently, on Reddit, people shared that "small" lie they told as a kid that had unexpected results, and it was too relatable not to share. Here are some of the best stories from the thread: 1."My younger brother was a really dumb kid. I managed to convince him that badgers were mythical creatures like dragons or unicorns. He then freaked out after seeing a dead badger on the road on his way to school. They had to call our parents. But that's not where it ends. During the subsequent talk about badgers actually being real and seeing one wasn't noteworthy, he confessed that the reason he was dumb was because he had a carrot in his brain." "A couple of years before, I'd done a really shitty attempt at a slight of hand trick. I pushed a carrot 'into his head,' but actually pushed it up my sleeve. It never even occurred to me that he thought it was real. He'd spent the last couple of years literally thinking he had a carrot in his brain, and that was the reason he sucked at spelling..." —uncle_monty 2."My older sister got glasses when she was in 4th grade, and I was in 2nd, and I wanted a pair too, so I told my parents that I had vision problems. They took me to an eye doctor who accused me of lying (I was), but my parents believed me, and I ended up getting glasses. Flash forward over 10 years and I now have a heavy prescription and cannot see for shit and it's probably because I messed up my eyes early on for no reason and didn't want to admit I was lying." —whatstherlworld 3."I used to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night as a teenager. We had a rickety back screen door that my parents both loved the sound of because it reminded them of an old country screen door. I required this door to commence my nighttime shenanigans. I WD40ed the hinges to make it quieter. What I did not intend was for it to silence the country creakiness entirely. I felt terrible because I also liked the creaky door, but my selfish ass carried on. Never heard a word from my parents." "Around ten years later, my dad was telling some stories about his own father and the narcissistic antics he used to get up to. One of these stories was about the time my parents confronted my grandfather for lubricating the door hinges on this screen door. He talked about how a huge argument ensued about how my grandfather thinks he knows better than everyone else, and that he couldn't just mind his own business and let my parents enjoy THEIR OWN stupid creaky door IN THEIR OWN STUPID HOUSE. As this was absolutely characteristic of my grandfather, my plan turned out to be accidentally genius because they were in town from California at the time. No one suspected dummy teenage-me, because OF COURSE GRANDPA DID IT. 'Dad, I feel safe confessing this now because of how long it's been. That was me. I lubed up the door hinges.' Shocked silence for about ten seconds, and then one of the hardest belly laughs I've ever heard out of my dad." —amandemic 4."I so adamantly pretended I thought my doll was real and could hear her telling me to do things that I had to be evaluated by a therapist." —LeftStatistician7989 "'Pretended.' Just like the doll told you to say." —darkpigeon1 5."This was around 1991 in Chicago, so my sister and I were 7 and 9 years old, respectively. There was this hysteria at the time about Homie the Clown, which was a character on TV, but supposedly there was a man in the area dressed as him and trying to lure kids with candy into his van. There were 'sightings' reported all over the city by children, and the cops and local news were all over it. One day during class, my sister claimed she saw Homie hiding in a bush by the school, so they put the school on lockdown until the police could investigate. She did not, in fact, see Homie, or any other clown, lol." —Iwantitallthensum 6."For the record, I really was a twin. HOWEVER, I was a fraternal twin. Boy-girl pair. We had a substitute teacher one day, and one of my bullies was picking on me for something or other again. I decided that I had had enough, and I poured clear glue on her chair. She sat down on it, and her skirt got all sticky and stiff. Her tights stuck to the chair; it was a mess. The substitute asked who did it, and obviously, someone ratted me out. When I was asked about the incident, I said, 'I'm not Phantom, I'm Maria. I'm her twin. We switched places today. I'm supposed to be in the other 4th grade class.'" "The substitute left a note that said, 'Phantom's twin switched places and glued a girl's skirt, no complaints about Phantom except that she was not in class like she was supposed to be, but another teacher said there was no issue for one day.' My teacher was back the next day, and she pulled me aside, telling me it wasn't funny to switch places with my twin because there are a lot of safety issues and school rules we are breaking by switching. She went next door to the other 4th-grade class and told the other teacher about the glue incident. He got in trouble for it. My twin was already a troublemaker while I was the nerdy, goody-goody twin. When we got home and argued about me getting him in trouble, our mom marched right up and asked us to explain. She, of course, did not believe that a teacher would fall for the twin switching story because we were a fraternal boy-girl pair. He got grounded at home, too. From that moment on, whenever I did something I wasn't supposed to, he would sarcastically say, 'Oh, was it MARIA?!' which just ended up backfiring because our classmates ended up thinking I had a twin named Maria and that my twin brother was a really year older but got held back. It wasn't until high school that one of our classmates, who was also part of a Boy-Girl twin pair, was complaining that she never got to pull the twin switch thing, and he got snarky and said, 'Ask Phantom how to do it, I bet she'd looooooove to share.' I had to confess because he sounded so upset, and he had my back about something earlier that day." —PhantomIridescence 7."When I was 11, I had a book report due. I didn't do it, and pretended to be sick that day with a handful of vague symptoms, intending to cram through the book report while I was absent. Instead, my mom took me to the doctor, and it turned out I had mono for real. I was out of school for 6 weeks and still never got around to doing that book report. It was assumed that the tutor the school sent to my house had misplaced it." —NymphaeAvernales 8."After we completed a module on red brown color blindness in middle school biology, I told my classmates that I was red/brown color blind in one eye. They would have me close my 'good' eye and have me guess the color... it was incredibly dumb but seemed harmless. Unfortunately, they were so fascinated that it became disruptive, and the teachers overheard." "The teachers told my parents that I was apparently losing color vision in one eye, and it spiraled to me continuing to fake the situation until I had to come clean to a neurologist who was about to send me for a (not covered by our insurance) MRI." —jantessa 9."I said I liked vegetables, so I wouldn't disappoint my grandma. Next family dinner: full plate of boiled Brussels sprouts. I cried. She cried. The Brussels sprouts won." —Personal-Pitch25 10."When I was probably four or five years old, my grandparents bought my sibling and me one of those electric keyboard pianos. It had a mode that would light up the keys red to teach you how to play the song. Little me discovered there was also a setting that plays the correct key regardless of what you press when it was on, and it also stopped the red lights from showing. I did my best dramatic pianist performance in front of my mother, she was FLOORED, thinking I was some sort of reborn Mozart, a piano prodigy out of nowhere." "She called all of our family members over to watch me perform and exclaimed to them, 'My baby is going to Juilliard!' I got nervous with all the people around and ended up confessing in front of 6+ family members that the piano was basically playing itself." —Kasanala 11."When I was 7, I told my neighbor that my family had a pet monkey. No idea why. Just blurted it out one day like it was totally normal. She got super excited. She wanted to come over and meet it immediately. I panicked and I made excuses. It turned into this whole soap opera of a story. She told her whole class about it. Eventually, my mom found out because someone asked her how the monkey was doing. She made me go back and tell the truth. It was so embarrassing, and my neighbor looked so betrayed." —Cherry_zsa 12."Some kid wanted to borrow $2 from me. The $2 was all I had. I didn't even like this kid and suspected I'd never see that $2 again. So after PE, I went back to my backpack and shoved the $2 into my sock, and then said it's gone, someone must have stolen it. He told the PE teacher, despite my saying, 'Nah, it's ok. It was just $2.' The teacher sent us to the principal's office. The principal was asking who we thought took it. I said I don't know." "The other kid listed off half a dozen bullies from class. Now there are eight of us in the principal's office. They made the kids empty their pockets and take off their shoes and socks. I was panicking because the $2 was in my sock. Luckily, as the victim, I didn't get searched. All these tough bullies started listing off more kids they thought did it. It was getting out of hand quickly. Finally, the principal was like I guess the money is gone. I learned how many of these tough kids were snitches and that nobody in that PE class had $2 to their name." —LacCoupeOnZees 13."When I was 7, I would make my lips look super dry because I just wanted to be allowed to wear my mom's lipstick. My parents thought the extremely chapped lips were a sign of something and took me to the doctor, and that led to me having surgery to get my tonsils out (and something else too, I don't remember). I didn't have the heart to tell them I just wanted to wear lipstick." —Substantial_Chip791 14."In second grade, I bragged that my uncle invented the Post-it note. It snowballed until the PTA tried to invite him for career day, so I claimed he'd moved to Antarctica to test glue in the cold. People were still asking about him when I hit middle school." —Recent_Painting_8150 15."My grandparents used to live one street over from us. One morning, I was walking to school, and a neighbour (who my family hated and he didn't like us either, nothing major, just clashed) pulled up next to me and asked if I needed a lift anywhere, and I said nah, because my grandparents' house was just up the road." "When I got to my grandparents', I told them some guy asked me if I wanted a lift somewhere, and they brushed it off. I didn't think about it again until that night, my parents found out and took me to the police station and made a report. I don't know why, but I doubled down and just described some random dude. Like, I made it up as I was talking, and it became a whole thing about me potentially being kidnapped. Now, like 20 years later, my mum still says how lucky I was to get away." —messy_fishy 16."I was probably in first grade or so. We had a punching bag in the basement of the house, and I was enjoying playing with it. Eventually, it got to be bedtime, and being 6 years old, I was protesting. I told my parents that [classroom jerk] had threatened to beat me up, and I had to learn how to protect myself. I didn't know how seriously my parents would take that threat." "They called off work and met with the principal first thing. I was always a good kid, and the other kid always got in trouble, so they took my word for it, gave him detention, rearranged the classroom seating arrangement, and instituted a buddy system for me for recess and lunchtime. All because I wanted to stay up an extra fifteen minutes." —thetroublebaker finally, "Was dating a girl who loved chocolate. She offered me some one day, and I humorously replied that I couldn't because I was allergic. She immediately ran to tell her mother, and the fun joke turned into three years of turning down chocolate that I so desperately craved. Not because I loved it that much, but because now I couldn't have it or the jig would be up. Time went on, and I felt more and more pressure that I couldn't come forward." "The anxiety was real. Really real. I would sometimes leave my girlfriend's house and immediately stop and get a chocolate bar on my way back to my parents' house. After 3 damn years of that, finally, I was exhausted of the lie and nearly broke down in tears in front of my girlfriend. I came clean. We're expecting our third baby in a few months. 18 years of marriage so far, and many more to come. 😘 Love ya, honey." —ohnomynono I think we all probably have a story like these, so if you're up for it, share yours in the comments below or via this anonymous form:

Yahoo

5 hours ago

• Yahoo

Pablo the cat's miraculous escape after hour-long washing machine ordeal

A cat has survived being spun around in cold water for almost an hour in a washing machine after it was trapped inside the device during a cleaning cycle. It is believed nine-month-old Pablo was taking a nap inside the washing machine at the Queensland home when his owner turned it on, unknowingly trapping the Burmese inside. After the soapy 55-minute cycle, which had no clothes inside, Pablo was found in critical condition and rushed to the emergency vet. SASH (Small Animal Specialist Hospital) Gold Coast confirmed to Yahoo News the incident occurred last month, and Pablo has visited several times since to receive treatment. "They say cats have nine lives, I think Pablo has more than nine lives given what he's gone through," a worker told 7News, with Ella Yarsley — who treated Pablo — explaining he suffered from a brain injury, lung injury, and lost several toes in the accident. "Not many have seen cats go through a whole cycle and survive... it was pretty close to a miracle," she said. Pablo is now thankfully "almost back to full health". 🥶 Millions of pet owners urged to do one thing as major change looms 🐈 Family's devastated warning after three cats die in three days 🏝️ Bag of kittens 'left for dead' on Aussie beach A similar incident occurred in 2019 when a US woman unknowingly turned on her washing machine while her cat Felix was inside. "I heard a little meow, and all of sudden I saw a little white foot go up in the air! I can't tell you what that was like," Stefani Carroll-Kirchoff told news station CNN. The same year, a kitten was found inside a washing machine at the end of a 30-minute cycle in Launceton, Tasmania. Washing machines are an attractive napping spot for cats as they are quiet, enclosed spaces. Front loaders pose a particular risk for cats who are seeking a hidden spot to rest, and cat owners are urged to always check inside their devices before turning it on. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.

CBS News

12 hours ago

• CBS News

Pigeon and dog become best friends, providing comfort for Minneapolis woman morning loss of daughter

Just a few blocks away from the mighty Mississippi River, in downtown Minneapolis, a friendship is thriving. When it comes to having a pet, Glenda Spindler says there are highs and lows. "They give you a lot of unconditional love," Spindler said. "You know how dogs are, especially male dogs, they want to pee on everything." A longtime dog owner, Spindler knew what she could handle. "I never wanted a bird cause they are just too messy," she said. So, she relies on Flash, her Pomeranian, for companionship and comfort. It's much needed; she's dealing with grief. Spindler lost her beloved daughter in February, a few months after she found Screech, a pigeon — a very friendly and persistent one. Spindler explains the way it all came to be on a fall day in Gold Medal Park. "I think it came at the right time because I got to see how deeply she fell in love with the pigeon," Spindler said. He was a bird no one saw coming. "He had his nose down and I was like, 'What's going on?' And I was like, 'There's a baby bird down there.' I picked him up and I just hung him on the back of the wheelchair," Spindler said. For Flash, it was instant. Screech the pigeon and Flash the dog have become unlikely friends. WCCO "He constantly checked on that baby. They had a bond," Spindler said. Spindler was harder to convince, but Screech finally did it. "Just by coming and cuddling by me," she said. And he kept doing it, and doing it. So she kept feeding him and he fed her too. Screech has had every chance to fly away, but he chooses to stay, giving Spindler and Flash some appreciated attention, and grabbing neighborhood attention, too. Neighbor Joe Wellin regularly walks by in wonder,. "Usually the dogs will chase the pigeons away, or get used to them and just ignore them, but they seem to be friends," he said. And they are — Flash, Screech and Spindler need each other.