Imagine this: Rubin Swift, a dad from Cleveland, Ohio, finds himself at the Phoenix airport with his newborn daughter, Ru-Andria, only to be told they can’t board their flight.
Traveling with an infant is no easy feat, but Rubin never saw this coming.
Rubin’s journey began when he discovered he had a newborn daughter in Arizona and was granted custody.
Eager to bring his baby girl home, he packed his bags and headed south.
His first meeting with Ru-Andria was at Banner University Medical Center, where he bonded with her and met Joy Ringhofer, a 78-year-old NICU volunteer.
Joy, recently widowed, saw Rubin’s dedication as a father, despite the unexpected turn his life had taken.
Rubin, already a father to three and stepfather to four with his 32-year-old wife Tiffany, was surprised when Joy offered her phone number and a ride to the airport.
But at the airport, Rubin faced a major hurdle.
Frontier Airlines’ policy required infants to be at least seven days old, and Ru-Andria didn’t meet this criterion.
Rubin was stuck, with no birth certificate for his daughter and no money for alternative plans.
“I was out of money and the hospital told me that I wouldn’t be able to get a birth certificate for seven days. I was worried that if security saw me sleeping at the airport with a newborn, they’d take her away from me and charge me with neglect. I was stuck,” Rubin recalls.
Rubin’s wife Tiffany was equally distressed, knowing they couldn’t afford a hotel stay or a car rental.
“When he called me from the airport and told me that they weren’t going to let him fly until he could get a birth certificate in four days, I felt panicked … I didn’t want him to sleep at the airport. I was scared because it looked like we were out of options,” she said.
With no other options, Rubin remembered Joy, the compassionate NICU volunteer.
He called her, and to his relief, she immediately offered to help.
“I told him, ‘I’m going to take you home with me,’ so wait right there. There are a lot of dangers out there, but there’s a lot of good, too. I’d enjoyed talking to Rubin at the hospital and helping him with the baby. He was polite and kind and I could tell that he had a good heart,” Joy explained.
Rubin was amazed by Joy’s kindness, especially considering their different backgrounds.
“I’m black and she is white. I’m a stranger who grew up in the projects in the Bronx and she’s a great-grandmother who recently lost her husband. She knew very little about me, and yet, she took me in. Color wasn’t an issue to her. She showed me that in this crazy world, there is still compassion,” he expressed.
During their time together, Rubin, Joy, and baby Ru-Andria formed a unique bond.
They went for walks, shopped for groceries, and even visited Joy’s late husband’s grave.
“I could see the pain in her face from losing her husband, so at the cemetery, as we sat there with the baby, I said, ‘Hey, Charles, look — it’s your new granddaughter.’ We had some touching and wonderful moments. I lost my mom to cancer in 2007, so Joy really became like a mother or grandmother figure to me,” Rubin shared.
Finally, with the birth certificate in hand, Rubin and Ru-Andria were ready to return home.
But the bond they’d formed with Joy was unbreakable.
They promised to stay in touch, and indeed, they did, enriching each other’s lives through regular FaceTime chats.
“We just knew that we’d always be in touch from that day forward. We started out as strangers, and ended up as good friends. Rubin is very grateful to me, but I’m also very grateful to have had the opportunity,” Joy reflected.
In a world full of unexpected challenges, Rubin and Joy’s story is a heartwarming reminder of the power of kindness and the beauty of new friendships.
To learn more about this heartwarming story, watch the video below.
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