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A Woman Comforting a Distraught Stranger on a Minneapolis Flight, 2018 | Source: Facebook.com/Tom Scholzen
A Woman Comforting a Distraught Stranger on a Minneapolis Flight, 2018 | Source: Facebook.com/Tom Scholzen

People Slammed Crying Older Woman for Mixing up Seats on Plane – Only One Lady Stepped up

Junie Sihlangu
Jul 30, 2023
07:00 A.M.

Tom Scholzen experienced meanness from passengers on a flight when a disorientated woman sat in the wrong seat. Luckily, the lady had a human guardian angel who came to her rescue and made the experience all the better for the affected woman and Scholzen.

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A St. George, Utah, resident was on a flight to Minneapolis when he experienced a situation that caused him to take to social media. While seated on an airplane, the passenger saw a commotion as other people spoke to a flight attendant.

The Utah resident figured from their conversation that someone had placed themselves in the wrong seat. The person in question was an older woman escorted to her chair that was right in front of the poster.

The woman appeared distraught and confused as she rummaged through her things before breaking down in tears. Luckily, before the Utah man could react, another woman got up and improved the older lady's day.

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How One Woman Helped Another Passenger after Others Misjudged Her Harshly on a Plane

On July 24, 2018, Tom Scholzen, a construction estimator from St. George, Utah, took to his Facebook account to share two photos of a pair of women interacting while on a flight. He explained what happened in the pictures by confessing how he'd seen many things on his travels nationwide.

And that day was no different, but this time the experience was "something amazing." While traveling from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis, Minnesota, he noticed some airplane passengers conversing with the flight attendant as the aircraft was about to leave.

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From the interaction, he figured someone had sat in the wrong seat before seeing the culprit, an older woman. The woman was escorted to where Scholzen was seated, and as she walked closer, he heard people slamming her, calling her things like a "drug addict," "meth head," and "tweaker."

She ended up being placed right in front of him and was quite fidgety as she sat down. The Facebook user thought she seemed unable to control some of her motor skills as her head moved constantly and her hands shook.

He noticed that she was upset, confused, and seemed scared. The woman managed to buckle herself in before struggling to open her purse while holding some boarding passes, which made Scholzen believe she had other flights to take.

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The Utah man figured the woman happened to look at the wrong boarding pass, leading her to sit in the wrong airplane seat. She thumbed through the passes with shaky hands before placing them over her face because she was crying.

Scholzen said his "heart dropped" at that moment, and he wanted to do something to assist, but as he started unbuckling his seat belt, a thought came to him. The kind man didn't want to scare the timid lady, and being a stranger with a 6'5" frame didn't make him any less intimidating.

Luckily, another woman sitting across the aisle, who had seen everything he saw, decided to act. The sweet woman first looked across at the distraught lady before offering her tissues and then spent the rest of the flight comforting her!

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The woman from across the aisle helped the upset lady organize her boarding passes. She even listened to her and offered to help her to the next flight once their plane landed.

Scholzen noted how the stranger treated the woman having a difficult time sweetly. He admitted holding back tears "all the way to Minnesota" and acknowledged how he didn't know the distraught woman, her possible health issues, and more because it wasn't his business.

What he did concern himself about is that he doesn't like seeing people get hurt, even if they are strangers. The construction estimator advised how kindness went a long way before stating:

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"Regardless of what people look like on the outside, you never know what Storm is raging inside."

The Utah man asked anyone who knew the stranger who helped the upset woman to tell her how amazing she was. He was in awe of how the woman had chosen to show compassion instead of judgment and thanked her for being an "anonymous angel."

Scholzen said her kindness was a little "piece of heaven" on his flight that day. His story was shared by a digital creator's Facebook page called "Love What Matters" and garnered almost 200 comments from people who spoke up in support.

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What Were People's Reactions to Tom's Post?

Someone named Krissy Accisano noted how everyone was trying to get by, including addicts. The commenter revealed how they feel saddened by how the world is so angry, but people aren't allowed to express their anger anymore.

A fan's comment on the Love What Matters page regarding Tom Scholzen's flight experience on July 27, 2018 | Source: Facebook/Love What Matters

A fan's comment on the Love What Matters page regarding Tom Scholzen's flight experience on July 27, 2018 | Source: Facebook/Love What Matters

The person felt the emotion continued building until more people became "desensitized to the surrounding world." They believed that people eventually got tired of being overlooked and became the "overlooker" before urging people to care for each other when they could.

Then they must take peace knowing they'd created a moment with a stranger simply because they could. Someone named Mary Charles Tolle Coy shared the story of her mother flying to Denver in the early 1980s.

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A fan's comment on the Love What Matters page regarding Tom Scholzen's flight experience on July 27, 2018 | Source: Facebook/Love What Matters

A fan's comment on the Love What Matters page regarding Tom Scholzen's flight experience on July 27, 2018 | Source: Facebook/Love What Matters

The flight arrived early at its destination, and Coy's family had arranged for someone to meet her mother at the gate to take her to other members who would go home with her. Being in a wheelchair and her family not being there yet to meet her, she was pushed outside the entrance and left there.

The person told the woman's husband, who was outside the bathrooms, that his wife was struggling inside.

No one was willing to push the woman back to the terminal to wait for her family, and she called Coy in tears. The airline refused to assist when called, as did the sheriff and police, and when the family arrived at the designated meeting place, Coy's mother wasn't there!

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A fan's comment on the Love What Matters page regarding Tom Scholzen's flight experience on July 27, 2018 | Source: Facebook/Love What Matters

A fan's comment on the Love What Matters page regarding Tom Scholzen's flight experience on July 27, 2018 | Source: Facebook/Love What Matters

Since that day, the woman never traveled alone again. Another page follower, Cheryl Bender, felt no one was supposed to have assumed anything or laughed at the woman in Scholzen's story because mental illness and health issues are real.

Bender believed most mature and educated people wouldn't have laughed or gossiped about the distraught lady. They felt people had to be respectful, young or old, and someone else recalled another incident at an airport.

A fan's comment on the Love What Matters page regarding Tom Scholzen's flight experience on July 27, 2018 | Source: Facebook/Love What Matters

A fan's comment on the Love What Matters page regarding Tom Scholzen's flight experience on July 27, 2018 | Source: Facebook/Love What Matters

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They remembered being in a bathroom with their young daughter when a woman with Alzheimer's came in. The person admitted being nervous as she hadn't known what was wrong with the woman, but after a few minutes, it dawned on them that the lady was disorientated.

The woman kept asking the stranger if she was in the right place and went into a bathroom stall but then forgot she had and tried going again. She also couldn't find her way out of the bathroom, and the stranger didn't want to interfere but was concerned.

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The person told the woman's husband, who was outside the bathrooms, that his wife was struggling inside. He thanked her for being concerned and explained her condition, while a fifth person noted how some humans are quick to judge at times.

The commenter thought reading stories unlike Scholzen's was "beautiful." They encouraged others to lead with kindness, compassion, and patience because they never knew what others were going through, and they urged them to teach their children too.

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