JetBlue Passengers And Crew Comfort Woman Traveling To Funeral Of Grandson Slain In Orlando Massacre

Wonderful and heartbreaking. Get a tissue. CNN reports:

One of the youngest victims in Orlando’s deadly shooting was Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo. Known as Omar to friends, he was a dancer and barista. On Tuesday, less than three days after Omar’s brutal murder, his grandmother, heartbroken and alone, boarded a flight to Orlando to attend his funeral.

Jetblue crew member Kelly Davis Karas decided that the woman, though grieving alone, could not leave the plane without knowing the world was with her. Karas passed around a piece of paper for passengers to sign so their words might ease the grandmother’s aching heart.

As Karas pushed the beverage cart down the plane’s aisle, she whispered to passengers about the paper. Halfway down the aisle, another crew member on board said more paper was needed. Instead of signing their names and moving on, passengers were writing paragraphs—long notes of compassion, grief and strength.

“When we gathered them together to present them to her, we didn’t have just a sheet of paper covered in names, which is what I had envisioned. Instead, we had page after page after page after page of long messages offering condolences, peace, love and support. There were even a couple of cash donations, and more than a few tears,” Karas wrote on Facebook.

When the plane landed, the captain announced a moment of silence for Omar. And then every passenger stopped by the grandmother’s seat to personally console her. Not one complained about the delay in deplaning. The crew knew in advance of the woman’s situation because JetBlue is granting free travel to families of the victims.