I want to tell this story because I still feel guilty about how my random act of kindness actually turned out.

I was on my way into the Innsbruck, Austria Airport for my journey over to London, England. My cousins dropped me off and I made my way to the check-in line up.

Suddenly, I heard a voice behind me say, “excuse me,” and I turned around to see a woman with her elderly mother who was holding a suitcase. The woman said “my mother is travelling to London, but she can’t speak English, would you be able to help her through the airport and get her on a Taxi once you land in London?”

Without hesitation, I said yes. Her mother and I exchanged smiles and awkwardly made our way through the check-in line. She spoke the language at this point so she ended up helping me out too. We sat together in the waiting area with nothing to talk about, but we did play a bit of charades. She went to the bathroom and waved for me to look after her bag, so I did.

When she got back, she opened up her suitcase and took out a monstrous chocolate bar. It was huge, I have no idea where she got it from. She then handed it over to me and said “danke” which happened to be one of the words I understood. I assumed she was thanking me for helping her, even though I hadn’t yet got her in a taxi in London as requested by her daughter. I took the chocolate bar, with a bit of hesitation, then we continued to sit in silence.

We ended up being on opposite ends of the plane so I didn’t see where she was sitting, but it wasn’t anywhere near my seat. I decided that I would wait for everyone to get off the plane once we landed to be able to find her, assuming that she would also wait since she was an older lady.

We landed in London, and I waited… and waited… for everyone to get off of the plane. I finally stood up, and found absolutely no one left on the plane. I looked up and down the aisles and couldn’t find anyone. I assumed she decided to wait in the hallway for me so she could get out of the way of everyone. I hustled over to the hallway and started walking towards customs. She was nowhere to be found.

I started worrying a little bit, thinking she got lost and was unable to communicate with anyone. I couldn’t find her anywhere. I was going through the customs line up along with everyone else on the flight, and was still looking around frantically like a crazy person.

As I was deep into the middle of the line and contained by the retractable belt barriers, I glanced through the crowd and saw my old lady friend. I could barely see her through hundreds of people, but I saw her standing with her suitcase and talking to one of the security staff. I kept watching to try and read her body language if she was trying to find me. Then I saw another staff member come with a wheelchair and a trolley for her suitcase and they started making their way to the exit.

I wasn’t able to go help her because I was trapped in the line up, and was too far away for her to see me wave. I felt as though I failed my mission, but I was relieved to see that it was staff that was helping her out and not some other stranger. Even though I only spent a short amount of time in silence with her, I still became attached after being responsible for her. I could tell she was a very happy little lady, and I was sad that I couldn’t say goodbye.

A while later as I was on the train to my destination, I realized I still had the giant chocolate bar. I received a reward for something I didn’t actually do. I got her on the plane, in her own country, and then lost her in the English-speaking country where she needed me the most. Oops.

…It was a delicious chocolate bar though.