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11th January 2024
04:15pm GMT
A flight with a baby can be made a whole lot easier with the kindness of strangers.
One mum has proven this by sharing a lovely souvenir made by a fellow passenger to mark the special memory of her baby's first time flying.
When Kelly and Jake were flying back to Newark from Mexico earlier this month, their daughter, Romey, was fixated on the woman sitting next to them.
During the flight, their five-month-old couldn't take her eyes off the woman as she crocheted.
"She was just staring at her blatantly and amazed at how fast her hands were moving," Kelly told PEOPLE after her TikTok of the kind deed went viral.
Eventually, their baby girl's blatant staring helped the parents strike up a conversation with a passenger named Meegan Rubin about her craft.
"It entertained her for hours of the flight, just kind of observing her," Kelly told the outlet.
"She was just so kind. She had said how good Romey was and how beautiful she was."
@kellyryan49 Good people are the best #babies #babiesoftiktok #flyingwithkids #payitforward #goodnews #goodnewsmovement #firstflight #flyinghacks #united @United Airlines ♬ Gods creation - daniel.mp3
Throughout the remainder of the journey, Meegan continued crocheting, without revealing what it was that she was creating.
When the plane landed, she then turned to Kelly and said: "OK, I'm done," and handed the mum a yellow hat for Romey.
"Turns out she had whipped up and crocheted this beanie for Romey in the last maybe two hours of the flight, unbeknownst to us.
"It was beyond kind and such a shock. Everyone around us stood up and noticed just this beautiful encounter with a stranger. It was just an unbelievable kind of moment."
Reflecting on the experience, the mum said that she had been nervous to take her daughter on a flight beforehand, which made the gesture all the more special.
"It's just nerve-wracking going into a flight. You don't know who you're going to be sitting next to, if they're going to be annoyed if the baby acts up, or if the baby starts to need me to get up or walk around the plane.
"All those things go through your head as a parent. And so when you don't have any of that, but you also have a woman who is so nice and out of the kindness of her own heart, definitely put me and my husband's nerves to rest.
"It's also definitely let me be more open to traveling with my baby in the future."
After the flight, Kelly shared the moment with TikTok, while giving Meegin's crochet business a special mention.
Since uploading the clip, it has received millions of views, as well as thousands of comments praising Meegin's kind deed.
"when so many people are awful about babies on flights it is so refreshing to see people being so good and kind," one user wrote.
"I’m a firm believer that babies/children bring out the best in us, if we allow it. How sweet," another added.
"Nope but this picture needs to be printed and added in her baby book along with the flight ticket because this is too cute," a third wrote.
