Mother of 4 Thanks Airline for 'Kindness' After Holiday Season Flight

Adrian Wood traveled with her four children, including one with special needs.

ByABC News
December 23, 2016, 12:27 PM
Adrian Wood thanked American Airlines for the "kindness" shown to her and her four kids, including one with special needs, on Dec. 20, 2016.
Adrian Wood thanked American Airlines for the "kindness" shown to her and her four kids, including one with special needs, on Dec. 20, 2016.
Courtesy Adrian Wood

— -- It's a fact that cannot be avoided: traveling during the holiday season is crowded and often filled with stress.

But one mother of four said she had an amazing time traveling alone with her "pack" and wanted to recognize the kind treatment she received, in a now-viral Facebook post.

Adrian Wood wrote that after driving nearly three hours from Edenton, North Carolina to Raleigh-Durham International Airport Tuesday, she was bracing for a hectic trip. Her children were with her, but her husband wasn't able to travel with the family.

"I fly a lot with them by myself because my husband often times ... has to work," she told ABC News.

The family was traveling to Miami to visit her parents for the holiday. She was anxious this year since her youngest child, 3-year-old Amos, has special needs.

PHOTO: Adrian Wood thanked American Airlines for the "kindness" shown to her and her four kids, including one with special needs, on Dec. 20, 2016.
Adrian Wood thanked American Airlines for the "kindness" shown to her and her four kids, including one with special needs, on Dec. 20, 2016.

She remembered a friend's suggestion to speak to the airline about Amos' sensitivities when she arrived at the airport.

"I had never done that before," Wood, 41, admitted. "Saying it aloud is hard enough."

"But I was just so shocked by how kind the reaction was," Wood continued. "It makes sense that it should be kind, but my experience hasn't always been kind."

Thankfully, Wood wrote, American Airlines agents treated Wood with thoughtfulness and respect.

"Your smiling agent waiting on the curb, seemingly just for me, whisked my bags away and encouraged me to wait in the warm car as he did all things necessary," she wrote in a post. "Within minutes he returned to hand me my license and five boarding passes. 'Merry Christmas,' he said."

After that, the Wood family, with children ranging in age from 3 years old to 11 years old, were able to skip to the front of the line and allowed to board early. That "meant plenty of time to get little people settled and comfortable," Wood wrote.

She told ABC News that it was the little things that made the flight experience so special, like getting complimentary headphones for her children and asking if they'd like more apple juice.

"It wasn't things that are hard to do that meant so much," she said.

One flight attendant offered to take photos of the traveling family, which Wood described in her post as a "kind gesture recognized by a mother that is too often absent in the snapshot."

Wood said it was important to recognize that American Airlines went above and beyond "and to give people credit for kindness that would've gone unnoticed."

In a statement to ABC News, American Airlines said: "We are proud to have assisted the Wood family, and are glad to hear they had an excellent experience. We wish them, and all of our customers, a happy holiday and happy new year."

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