Kerry Drake would have missed his connecting flight to Lubbock, Texas

Mar 7, 2013 13:31 GMT  ·  By

A man trying to catch a flight to see his dying mother during her last moments has caught a break by having United Airlines delay a flight to accommodate him.

Kerry Drake's touching story, relayed by Consumerist, starts off with him trying to catch a flight to Lubbock, Texas.

Daily Mail notes that he received a call about his mother passing away on January 24. He rushed to catch a flight from San Francisco, where he is employed, to Lubbock.

The only available flight connected through Houston, and the lay-off was only 40 minutes. Despite the short amount the time he had available for switching planes, he decided to risk it, as it would have been his only option of saying goodbye to his mother.

The woman had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for years, but her condition had worsened lately.

“I knew this itinerary was a risk because the stopover in Houston was only about 40 minutes, and my connecting flight was the last flight to Lubbock that day. [...] But I needed to get there as soon as possible, so I took the risk,” he describes.

Unfortunately, the first United Flight suffered a half-an-hour delay, prompting the passenger to burst into tears, imagining he wouldn't arrive at his destination in time.

He was approached and comforted by two flight attendants, one of whom, Lan Chung, asked him to give her his flight number to Lubbock.

When the plane touched down, he bolted to try to catch the second flight, 20 minutes after it was scheduled to take off.

He noticed a United agent call him out by name, finding out that the airline had arranged it for him to catch the flight.

“We’ve been expecting you. [...] That’s when I knew they had conspired to help me,” says the. “She waved me onto the plane without looking at my boarding pass,” he recalls.

“When she died, I realized I was wiping away my tears with the extra United napkins that [the flight attendant] had given me the day before,” he adds.