Glenn Keller

I didn’t have to look up. I knew it was the flight attendant because everyone else was asleep. This happened a lot on overseas flights, usually to Asia…16 or 14 hour flights and I could never sleep so I would read. The only light on in the business class cabin.

Sometimes the flight attendant left on duty would grab a nap herself or maybe read a book. But if they were the antsy type they’d see my light on and come over and ask if I needed anything. They were happy to get it and then we’d have a chat. If you’re in first or business class, you could stroll into the galley and they would usually have somethings put out for the restless types. Sometimes they would offer to warm something up…I always said yes, because they were not expected to, which meant they wanted to…they were peeps that liked taking care of people.

I rarely watched movies on the overnight flights and was usually reading a book. “What are you reading?” They almost always asked, and then often we’d chat about the book and what she and her flight attendant friends were reading. There was always an author that was making the rounds it seemed.

In this case, I spoke with her for all of 5 minutes as she stopped by a few times and I went forward to use the restroom or raid the galley.

After we landed in Beijing I grabbed my things andI walked to the cabin exit and saw her in the group of crew saying goodbye to passengers. I caught her eye but before I could say anything, she waved goodbye and leaned over to a colleague and said “He is so nice! He made the trip so pleasant.” I hoped my goodbye smile told her I felt the same.

And that was that…two people who just wanted someone to talk to and found each other.

© Glenn R Keller 2022, All Rights Reserved