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Good Samaritan jumps in and buys plane ticket for desperate young family

Good Samaritan Debbie Bolton helped a man buy a plane ticket for his young daughter. Photo from Facebook/Love What Matters.
Good Samaritan Debbie Bolton helped a man buy a plane ticket for his young daughter. Photo from Facebook/Love What Matters.

A woman at a U.S. airport demonstrated the true meaning of compassion when she forked over more than $1,000 to help out a stranger in need.

According to a March 8th post on the Facebook page Love What Matters, a man tried to check in for his flight, only to realize his young daughter needed a ticket, too. The problem, it seems, was that he had booked the flight back in January when the girl was under the age of one and allowed to fly for free.

When the man informed the airline clerk that his daughter had just turned two-years-old, he was told he would have to purchase a ticket at an inflated price of US $749 (CA $1,009). Though he explained it was a misunderstanding, the airline would not budge.

“He was hit with emotion,” reads the post. “He mentioned he couldn’t afford to rebook this flight or get her the ticket with such short notice. He stepped aside and tried to make a few calls. Hugging his daughter and grabbing his head, you could tell he was heartbroken.”

A woman who had been standing nearby asked the man what was wrong. The pair chatted very briefly before they approached the counter together, where the woman announced she wanted to purchase the little girl’s ticket. The clerk reminded her of the inflated price, but the woman was undeterred and pulled out a credit card. According to the post, even though the man offered to pay her back, the woman insisted, “Don’t worry about it.”

Though it appears the Good Samaritan wished to remain anonymous, the internet demands that good deeds be properly recognized. As such, the woman has since been outed as Debbie Bolton, co-founder and Global Chief Sales Officer of Norwex, which is an international cleaning supplies brand. According to The Sun, Bolton was catching a flight home from Omaha, Nebraska, when the incident occurred.

One of Bolton’s co-workers, Susan Holt, told MailOnline that “Debbie as an amazing woman” who “wouldn’t have intended for this to be public.”

Be that as it may, Bolton’s act of kindness is now undeniably public. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Facebook post has been liked more than 198,000 times by people around the world.