The Couple in Row One

The forced intimacy of air travel creates small windows into the lives of strangers.

I first noticed a lady bug on the seat back of the elderly gentlemen in front of me. Crawling around, clearly confused as to what all of this plastic was. This was different. I've never seen that before.

Then my eyes fell upon two elderly hands holding each other in a very tender, loving way. At first, I thought it was her, taking care of him, but after takeoff, when he escorted her to the lavatory, I realized that it was him, taking care of her. He stood dutifully by the door, waiting for her to come out and then escort her the few steps back to her seat.

It occurred to me that this seat selection was no accident. Clearly he had made these arrangements well in advance.

Later, through their seatbacks, I could see that she had her iPhone open to the numeric keypad lockscreen but was swiping up on it over and over. He then unlocked it for her.

It slowly became clear that there were cognitive as well as physical issues that they were dealing with.

These are just little snapshots over a 5-hour flight of a couple with a loving history.

When I later got up to use the restroom, I noticed that she was asleep, so I bent down, place my hand on his shoulder and said “It would be impossible not to notice how well you treat your lady.”

He looked my in the eye, smiled softly and said simply. “I love her.”

I responded through tears, “I get it.” (Tears comes so much more easily these days).

This man is a hero to me. I love seeing love acted out in ways like this.

As we passed them after deplaning, I smiled at him and said “God bless you both.”

He gave me that same smile, and I teared up again… Beautiful Love.