08/19/2026
There are still good people out there… and sometimes you meet them at the exact moment when you need to be reminded of it.
On August 12, what was supposed to be a simple trip to Orlando turned into one of the longest and most difficult travel days I’ve experienced.
My accessible ride arrived late, which caused me to miss my NJ Transit connection to Newark Airport. By the time I finally made it to EWR, I had missed my 6:55 p.m. JetBlue flight.
For most people, missing a flight is frustrating.
For me, it was much more complicated.
I travel in a wheelchair. I have limited movement in my hands and a speech impairment, so simply turning around, going back home, and returning to the airport a few hours later is not as easy as it sounds.
The next available flight I could arrange was a United Airlines flight leaving the following morning around 11:00 a.m.
Going home that night, only to somehow return to the airport around 8:00 the next morning, felt nearly impossible. And after already missing one flight because of transportation delays, I wasn’t willing to take the chance of it happening again.
So I made a decision.
I would spend the night at the airport.
I found a quiet corner, parked my wheelchair, and prepared myself for a very long night.
The airport had become almost completely empty. It was cold, I was hungry, and I was trying not to move around unnecessarily because one of my biggest concerns was my wheelchair battery dying.
So I stayed there.
Cold. Hungry. Tired.
Waiting for morning.
Around midnight, I noticed a gentleman walking toward me with a young woman. I immediately recognized him. Earlier that evening, when I realized I had missed my flight, he had been one of the people who helped guide me and explain where I needed to go.
They both work for United Airlines on the evening shift at Newark Airport.
When he saw me still sitting there, he looked surprised.
“What are you still doing here?”
I explained what had happened and why I had decided to spend the night at the airport.
The young woman standing with him listened to the whole story.
Then she looked at me and said something along the lines of:
“What? Give me your boarding pass. Sit tight. I’ll be back.”
And she disappeared.
A short time later, she returned holding a new boarding pass.
She had managed to get me onto the next United Airlines flight to Orlando — leaving at 7:05 that morning.
Instead of sitting in that airport until almost midday, wondering what else could go wrong, suddenly I had a way out.
But their kindness didn’t stop there.
They asked me if I was cold.
I definitely was.
They asked me if I was hungry.
I definitely was that too.
Unfortunately, because of my physical limitations and the difficulty I have using a restroom while traveling, I sometimes have to fast for up to two days before a flight. It is something I do because I simply cannot take the risk of needing a restroom when I don’t have the assistance I need.
So no matter how hungry I was, eating wasn’t an option.
But warmth was.
They found two United Airlines blankets for me and personally placed them over me to make sure I was comfortable.
And then came the part that meant even more than the boarding pass or the blankets.
They stayed.
They sat there with me and talked for about an hour.
At midnight.
In an almost empty airport.
They didn’t have to.
They could have helped me and walked away.
Instead, for that hour, I wasn’t just a stranded disabled passenger sitting alone in a wheelchair.
I was simply another human being having a conversation with two people who cared enough to stop.
That night reminded me of something we sometimes forget.
Kindness doesn’t always arrive through some huge heroic act.
Sometimes kindness is noticing someone sitting alone.
Sometimes it is asking, “Are you okay?”
Sometimes it is finding a blanket.
Sometimes it is taking a few extra minutes to solve a problem that technically isn’t yours.
And sometimes it is simply sitting beside someone so they don’t feel alone.
We hear so many stories about what is wrong with the world that it becomes easy to forget how much good is still quietly happening around us every single day.
That night, two United Airlines employees reminded me.
So from the bottom of my heart, I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to WONETTA ANDREA SINCLAIR and KHAMANI CAMPBELL, two members of the United Airlines evening team at Newark Liberty International Airport.
You may have thought you were simply helping a passenger get through a difficult night.
But what you really gave me was something much bigger:
a reminder that compassion still exists, humanity still matters, and yes…
there are still very good people out there.
I am sharing this story publicly because employees like Wonetta and Khamani deserve to be recognized. I sincerely hope this story somehow reaches United Airlines leadership and headquarters, because these are the people who represent what customer service and humanity should look like.
United Airlines, I hope you see this.
Please recognize WONETTA ANDREA SINCLAIR and KHAMANI CAMPBELL for the kindness, compassion, and extraordinary care they showed me when they had absolutely no obligation to do so.
People like them deserve to know that what they do matters.
HEMARAJ RAMPERSAD
