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Father flying alone with fussy 8-month-old baby helped by passenger

Posted at 12:46 PM, Dec 23, 2016
and last updated 2016-12-23 12:47:13-05

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas father’s flight with his fussy 8-month-old son became a bit easier thanks to the kindness of a fellow passenger.

Evan Hughes, 32, was flying home to Fort Worth, Texas from Chicago when he was forced to take a separate flight from his wife, Kari, due to winter weather, WFAA reports.

After booking his flight, Hughes was scheduled to arrive in Texas before his wife, so he took little Ki from Chicago to Atlanta and Atlanta to Dallas.

The first flight was relatively uneventful as Ki slept most of the way, but on the second flight, Ki became fussy.

“I was walking down the aisle and everybody’s looking at me, gosh, guy with a baby. Please don’t sit by me.”

When he sat down, Ki continued to cry. After several minutes, a 25-year-old woman in the seat beside him offered to help.

“After brief introductions and him fighting me trying to crawl over to [the stranger], she opens her arms and says: ‘Oh just give him to me!” he wrote in the IMGUR post. “He (and I, exhausted) willingly oblige to the stranger’s request. Not 60 seconds later he puts his head down on her chest and falls asleep.”

The woman, who was later identified as child care worker India Massinburg, said she has a knack for these situations and just wanted to help the solo-traveling dad.

The entire social media post reads:

I was having an awful travel experience on Sunday after my SO and I got separated in Chicago due to weather. This was only little man’s 2nd flight ever (8mo old) and he was doing so well until he wanted to go see my neighbor in the window seat. After brief introductions and him fighting me trying to crawl over to her, she opens her arms and says “oh just give him to me!” He (and I, exhausted) willingly oblige to the strangers request. Not 60 seconds later he puts his head down on her chest and falls asleep! “Power of the boobies” she jokes. She then proceeds to tell me that if I wanted to take a quick nap that she would be more than happy to hold him while he slept. After multiple cancellations and layovers I selfishly agreed to give her watch over my precious child so that I could catch a quick cat nap. The kindness of this stranger was truly refreshing on what was quickly becoming one of the worst days in a long time. There is still hope!