God has a way of letting us know that he is there, even when life seems so hard that we’ll never make it through. That’s exactly how Tricia Belstra felt after a recent experience on an airline.

She had been sitting on her flight between two strangers and was holding a barf bag with her head between her legs. The flight attendant checked on her and brought her a glass of water. It wasn’t long before another young man walked by with a drink cart and asked if she was okay. That’s when she explained why she was on the flight. She was flying to go and bury her son.

But it wasn’t just these two that helped her during her flight. The girl sitting next to her offered to pour Belstra’s water for her because her hands were too shaky to do it on her own. Another girl helped her with her luggage when they landed.

It wasn’t just the kindness the strangers showed that day that made the difference to her though. It was something that happened as she was walking off the plane. The young man that had helped her handed her a napkin, told her he was sorry for her loss, and said, “This isn’t much.”

When Belstra got to a place in the hallway where she was no longer in the way, she looked at the napkin and burst into tears. The napkin shared a story with her that she found comfort in. The letter said:

“In 2004, my family lost my older brother. As traumatic as it still is for me, I can’t even pretend to truly know the pain you feel as a mother. I did, however, watch my mother’s grieving process (a process that will never end). Firstly, being a mother is about giving birth to new life as a promise to the future. Your mission doesn’t end now – your son’s life is bigger than his death and always will be. My mom struggled desperately chasing a far away goal of some how lessening the pain. As she has realized now, the pain hardly lessens. Don’t expend your energy trying to chase this. Instead, go all out finding opportunities to experience joy. Visit family, get closer to those you’ve lost touch with, travel. This is your story and you owe it to yourself and your son to make sure that you survive this. Do not pressure yourself. This world is full of people who do truly care about you, even if it doesn’t feel that way. I won’t stop thinking about you anytime soon or how you’re doing or what you’re up to. You’ll come out of this a stronger person and I’ll be rooting for you the whole time.”

 

Belstra asked her priest to bless this young man and he told her that he was “one of God’s soul angels.” She hopes this story eventually makes its way back to him so she can thank him herself some day for his caring heart during her darkest moment.

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