A grateful mom shared the moment a soldier picked up her daughter and ran through an airport so they could make their flight – before social media helped find him so she could learn his name and say thank you properly.
Mom Tia Lucia Walter, from Dallas, Texas, has flown out of Dallas Love Field numerous times, so was confident she and her family had given themselves enough time to catch their domestic flight on December 20.
When the family arrived, however, Tia was met with an unexpected surge at bag check, and she, her husband and their two kids started to worry they weren’t going to make their flight.
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Having made it through TSA, the family heard the announcement, “Last call for Midway. Doors closing.”
Tia and her husband, Zack, realized they each needed to grab a child and run, so Zack took their four-year-old son, David.
But Tia swiftly realized she wasn’t strong enough to run through an airport with her luggage and her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, River.
She looked around near the food court, where she saw a soldier sitting, and hastily explained she was going to miss her flight and asked if he could help.
The serviceman didn’t hesitate to say yes and pick up River, so with boarding already completed, and the gate closed, Tia said, the pair ran the length of the airport, and, out of breath, Tia and her family were just able to make the flight.
The gesture and adrenaline rush brought Tia to tears, and later, on the way back, the solider was cheered and applauded for his gesture.
But Tia never caught the soldier’s name, and so she later shared her story online, with the video receiving so many views it allowed her to reconnect with the soldier and learn his name – Daniel.
Tia said: “The response has been overwhelming – for both of us.
“Daniel was at basic training with no access to his phone, so when he graduated, he returned to a flood of messages from people he trained with.
“Everything happened so fast and all the emotion hit me at once, and I started crying as I thanked him.
“He actually apologized, saying he wasn’t sure if he was holding my daughter correctly. I immediately told him he did everything perfectly.
“We boarded immediately, and I never got his name – I wish I had hugged him, thanked him properly, and learned his name but the urgency of the moment didn’t allow it.
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“That unfinished gratitude is what later compelled me to find him.
“Later, I learned from his sister that after we boarded, Daniel returned to his seat, and as he walked back, surrounding passengers applauded and thanked him for his service.
“When we were finally reunited, it felt surreal like the story had come full circle exactly the way it was meant to.”
