The Veteran
Used to be a wheelchair attendant for an international airport.
I was assisting the gentleman get the wheelchair and his wife was explaining to him it would only be for a few weeks and that everything would be ok. The man starts crying, saying he doesn’t want to to be far away and he’s concerned about his visit back home. She consoled him and asked me to make sure he got to the gate ok. I gave my word AI would. So as we’re going through Security I begin talking to him and I found out why he was so upset.
This guy was a Scottish World War 2 veteran and he was going back home for the first time since leaving after returning from the war. He began to tell me his life story, how he lost his older and younger brother during Dunkirk because the British army required the Scottish military members to hold back the Nazis while the British troops escaped. He told me how he got injured in combat and was treated by an American medic that later became his wife. He told me of his jobs after the war, about his children, about his grandchildren and how he has a great grandchild on the way.
He then told me about why he’s going back home after all this time in America. It was because he had cancer that likely will be untreatable and he wanted to stay in his home village and try to get medical treatment there until the end. However his wife had to work another week or so and wouldn’t be in the country and he was upset because he didn’t want to pass away with her not by his side. I had to hide my tears after that one. After hearing all that, I perfectly understood why he was getting emotional.
His flight wasn’t taking off for a few hours after I dropped him off so that day I checked up on him every hour, had lunch with him and eventually other people started hanging out with him when they noticed he was alone and he began smiling and laughing with them. But just thinking about him gets me teary eyed.
Story credit : Reddit / TheRampantWriter