A couple was happily surprised when on a recent flight — their daughter’s first ever — a stranger crocheted the baby girl a hat as a gift.
“It was Romey’s first flight and obviously, we were a little bit nervous,” Kelly Levine told Good Morning America. Levine and her husband Jake were flying with their daughter Romey, who is just five months old. On their return flight from Mexico to New Jersey, the couple met a woman whom baby Romey befriended.
“[Romey] ended up taking a liking to this woman next to us and the woman was crocheting,” said Levine. “Her hands were moving a million miles an hour and Romey was just obsessed with it.”
@kellyryan49 Good people are the best #babies #babiesoftiktok #flyingwithkids #payitforward #goodnews #goodnewsmovement #firstflight #flyinghacks #united @United Airlines ♬ Gods creation – daniel.mp3
The woman’s name was Meegan Rubin, and she noticed little Romey watching her intently.
“I was sitting in the aisle and the baby was in the aisle so she was gazing at me the entire flight,” she explained. “I was working on a sweater. She was literally mesmerized by it.”
She said she felt inspired to make a little hat just for Romey.
“I was like, if I [don’t] run out of this yarn and there’s time, I’ll do it, because I had the same color yarn as her little outfit,” said Rubin. “I couldn’t help it. I was like, this baby is getting something because she’s too cute.”
There was only about an hour left on the flight when Rubin was able to get to work on the hat and finish it before the flight landed.
“We landed and right as everybody was getting up, I was like, ‘I’m finished!’ … Let’s see if it fits baby,” said Rubin.
Levine shared, “She ended up gifting us this beautiful beanie that she decided to make for [Romey] mid-flight. Never seen someone work so fast in my life. I had no idea it was for us. We thought, ‘What a cool way to just do something nice for a stranger,’ and in turn, light up everyone else’s mood. It was such a selfless act.”
Rubin said she plans to make Romey a dress. “I’m definitely going to make Romey a little baby dress because I love to make baby dresses. I’m happy to make that connection and make new friends. They’re such lovely people.”
The sweet tale is in stark contrast to the story actress Kaley Cuoco recently shared of her nine-month-old daughter’s first flight.
She told “Jimmy Kimmel Live” host Jimmy Kimmel last week, “It was our first flight ever with this baby, which is terrifying. We were very terrified.” Things were rough for Cuoco and her family as baby Matilda had trouble falling asleep on the flight and was crying. She was finally able to sleep to the noise of her sound machine until the woman seated in front of them asked a flight attendant to have Cuoco and her boyfriend Tom Pelphrey turn the machine off. When Matilda woke up, smiling, the passenger turned around and snarked, “Oh, so your daughter does know how to smile,” claimed Cuoco.
Though there are anti-natalist groups urging people not to have children and spreading negative messages about children, including Stop Having Kids and The Birthstrike Movement, people like Rubin remind us that a little kindness goes a long way and in this case, helped a young couple feel good about their first experience flying with their baby.
