Kalamazoo area family will be long remembered for their kindness (Viewpoint)

Danielle Favorite | By Danielle Favorite | The Kalamazoo Gazette
on January 29, 2013 at 7:00 AM, updated January 29, 2013 at 7:08 AM
Detroit Metro, airplane, generic An airplane at Detroit Metro Airport.  


Last summer I met a family from your area. It was around mid-August, flying from Colorado to Detroit. The husband was blind, the wife was almost completely blind and their 2-year-old child was blind. They were also traveling with a newborn baby.

They were traveling alone and coming back from visiting one of their parents, flying into Detroit to connect to a flight home to Kalamazoo or somewhere nearby.

I inspired watching how easily they were able to get around given their physical disabilities, but I was also inspired by what happened when we got off the plane. It is a moment that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, even if we only knew each other for a brief moment in time.

I lost my wife of 10 years to cervical cancer this past May. She was as strong as anyone and she inspires me daily. Our first-born son was only 15-months-old when she died. I was sharing stories about my son Dylan with the mother on the plane. We were talking like any parents would about their kids. I never mentioned that my wife had passed.

The gentleman beside me asked about my wife was, and I tried to brush it off. You don't need to be able to see to sense when someone is uncomfortable or to hear a change in his voice. She must have been able to pick up on it.

I exited the plane before the rest of my family and waited for them in the terminal. The blind family came out, and I watched them gain their bearings as they put their older child in a stroller. The dad carried the newborn, holding onto his wife as they prepared to catch another flight.

I was standing about 15 feet away from them, unnoticed. Just before they turned to leave, the wife turned to her husband and said, "You know that guy beside me on the plane, I think his wife passed away and he has a little baby boy." Her husband replied, "Oh my God, that is so sad," and they continued to discuss it as they walked away.

Here was a family who probably struggles daily given their disabilities, genuinely concerned about a complete stranger, about a story that we did not even talk about, just something she sensed. It touched my heart and I will never forgot that moment. It was one of the most human, genuine moments of my life.

I remember this moment when I need the extra inspiration, and let's be honest, sometimes we need that little extra. I hope somebody who reads this know the family and shares this story with them. They were the nicest and kindest family I have ever come across. I just wanted them to know that.

Jason Bedford lives in Cambridge, Ontario, in Canada.