Meet Eric, my Hero of the Day

Meet Eric at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. I was connecting through PHX from San Diego, and I saw a post that my dear friend Ian was delayed here. I sent Ian a text, and discovered he was all the way across the airport from me, and I had about 20 minutes until I was boarding. 

I made a quick decision and flagged Eric down. 

“Can you help me?” I asked. “I have a friend on the other side of the airport who needs a hug. My flight boards in 20 minutes.” 

“Oooooookay,” he said. “Are you sure you can make it?”

I said yes, let’s do it, and he whisked me all the way to Ian at concourse A. On the way, we chatted, and I asked him about my options to get back to make my flight on time - it was much further than I expected. 

“How long are you going to be?” He asked. 

Two minutes, I told him. I just need to give him a hug. 

“I got you,” Eric said. And he waited with my bag on his cart while I gave my friend a few giant hugs and we promised to see each other longer than two minutes very soon. 

Friendship. Good people. It’s all worth every effort. 

Thanks, Eric.

[Post script: Eric brought me back to the entrance to the Southwest concourse, and I strolled to my gate. I got in line and found that I was next to someone with my same exact boarding number. Huh, I thought. That’s weird. Turns out they had changed my gate and I had to go halfway back, so I had to run and got my exercise in today.]

First published at Facebook.com/KristinVShaw