A woman abandons her newborn baby on a business plane seat because she fears she won\u2019t be able to care for him, but when things improve for her several years later, she decides to find him and take him in. \u201cPREGNANT?! You must be out of your mind, Rhonda!\u201d her father, David Harris, yelled at her when he found out she was pregnant with her boyfriend Peter\u2019s child. Rhonda, unlike Peter, came from a wealthy family, and her father owned a large textile company.\n
Unfortunately, her mother died when she was just two, so her father had raised her alone. Mr. Harris provided the best of everything for his daughter \u2013 clothes, food, and education \u2013 but he was also a very controlling man who didn\u2019t want his daughter to ever go against his wishes. When Rhonda found out she was pregnant, she tried to hide it from her father by wearing oversized clothes, but as the baby bump became more visible, she couldn\u2019t hide it anymore. She decided to tell Mr. Harris about her pregnancy, but he was anything but impressed by it. \u201cYou\u2019re going to get rid of that child, Rhonda. Do you get it?\u201d\u201c No, dad,\u201d 16-year-old Rhonda declared adamantly. \u201cI will not terminate the pregnancy. It\u2019s too late now, and I can\u2019t abort the baby.\u201d\u201cThen you\u2019ll have to figure out how you\u2019re going to raise that child yourself,\u201d Mr. Harris warned her.\n
\u201cNo one in our family has ever dared to marry someone from a lower class. So if you want to raise that man\u2019s blood, get the hell out of my house!\u201d \u201cFine, dad,\u201d Rhonda said after a brief pause, her eyes welling up with tears. \u201cMaybe if mom was still alive, she would have supported me. But that\u2019s fine. I\u2019ll raise the child alone and prove you wrong.\u201d Rhonda packed her belongings and left that evening, cutting all ties with her father. Mr. Harris didn\u2019t budge at all and slammed the door behind her, ordering her to return only after she had aborted the child or placed it in an orphanage. Rhonda didn\u2019t utter a word and booked an Uber to Peter\u2019s house. When she arrived, she explained that she\u2019d left her father\u2019s house because he refused to accept their child and that she wanted to start a new life with him. But to her shock, Peter refused to take responsibility for the child. \u201cLook, babe,\u201d he said. \u201cI am not ready to become a father. And why did you leave your father\u2019s house? He could have helped us financially when we marry and decide to start a new life. Get rid of that child or forget about me, Rhonda.\u201d A shock ran through Rhonda as she heard that.\n
\u201cBut Peter, this is our baby. How can you\u2026.\u201d \u201cLook, Rhonda, that baby and you are causing me nothing but trouble right now. You know what, just forget about us! It\u2019s over!.\u201d\u201cPeter!\u201d Rhonda cried. \u201cYou were so happy when you found out about the pregnancy! What happened?\u201d \u201cBecause you\u2019re nobody right now, babe. Your dad kicked you out, and I can\u2019t raise that kid, so goodbye,\u201d he said and slammed the door in her face. Rhonda\u2019s life was turned upside down in one night! She couldn\u2019t believe she was heavily pregnant and neither her father nor her boyfriend was concerned about her! She left Peter\u2019s house that evening, crying inconsolably, and wandered the streets, unsure of where life would take her. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen and went into labor. The pain was excruciating, and she kept pleading with passersby to help her. Fortunately, one woman noticed her and with the help of her driver, assisted Rhonda to her car and rushed her to the hospital. Rhonda gave birth to a baby boy that night, and when she awoke, the woman who\u2019d assisted her, Angela Bamford, was sitting by her bedside. \u201cThank -Thank you for helping me,\u201d Rhonda told her in a low voice.\n
\u201cMy child\u2026 .he\u2019s safe, right?\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s perfectly fine,\u201d Mrs. Bamford assured her. \u201cAre you new in town? I noticed you were carrying your luggage.\u201dRhonda couldn\u2019t hold back her tears. She burst out crying and told Mrs. Bamford the story of how she ended up there. \u201cI don\u2019t want to live here any longer,\u201d Rhonda sobbed. \u201cI just want to get out of Texas. But I\u2019m not sure I can provide a good life for my child.\u201d Mrs. Bamford felt terrible for Rhonda, not only because she was a homeless mother deciding whether or not to raise her child, but also because she reminded her of her own daughter. \u201cDon\u2019t say that, dear,\u201d Mrs. Bamford consoled her.\n
\u201cI used to have a daughter your age. When we found out she was pregnant, we were furious and kicked her out of the house. \u201cMy husband owns an airline company, and we were wealthy enough to support our daughter. But we were opposed to such a young pregnancy. I wish I could have helped her. She took her own life because she couldn\u2019t bear all of it. I don\u2019t want someone else to go through that! It\u2019s a terrible place to be in.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m sorry to hear that,\u201d Rhonda said, wiping away her tears. \u201cI, too, feel sorry for her,\u201d Mrs. Bamford added. \u201cHowever, it\u2019s too late now. Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll help you. I can book the ticket for you. Make sure your child lives a good life in a new place.\u201d \u201cOh no,\u201d Rhonda exclaimed. \u201cYou\u2019ve already done a lot for me. I\u2019m afraid I won\u2019t be able to return this favor.\u201d\u201cPlease,\u201d Mrs. Bamford requested.\n
\u201cIf I help you, it\u2019d be like I helped my daughter. And it will help me get over my guilt.\u201dRhonda couldn\u2019t say no to Mrs. Bamford at that point. She accepted the ticket and a few days later, she was flying business class from AUS to JFK, ready to start her life all over again. However, as she sat settled in the plane with her baby in her arms, she was constantly concerned about her ability to provide a good life for him. \u201cWhat if I am unable to care for my child? What if he ends up living with me on the streets?\u201d These thoughts had taken over Rhonda\u2019s mind to the point where she didn\u2019t notice the flight was over, and the pilot announced their arrival at JFK. Rhonda was terrified as she realized she would be alone in a strange city with a newborn and no means to provide for him. Her mind started to spin, her heart pounded, anxious over the thought of what lay ahead for her and her son. It was at that point that she made a painful decision. She decided she would leave her baby on the plane, hoping someone would take him and give him a good life. She waited for the people in the seats next to her to leave, and when she saw no one was looking, she left her son on the seat, along with a note she had scribbled earlier, and exited the plane quickly.\n
It took all her strength not to look back and snatch her baby back, but she decided it was for the best.When one of the stewardesses, Lincy, approached the seat after the passengers had left, she was taken aback to discover the baby. She couldn\u2019t help but feel bad for the child as she read the note Rhonda had left with him. I\u2019m a poor mother who couldn\u2019t care for her child. Don\u2019t waste your time looking for me if you find this note. I would never have been able to provide a good life for him. I hope you accept and cherish him as your own. I\u2019d be delighted if you named him Matthew. Matthew Harris. That was the name I had chosen for him.13 years later\u2026After struggling for almost a decade, Rhonda finally found a stable job and was doing well financially. However, there wasn\u2019t a single day when she didn\u2019t regret leaving her son on the flight.\n
She had struggled as a homeless person for nearly 7 years after moving to NYC, and the remaining seven years had been spent trying to earn a stable income and renting a house. Things had eventually worked out for her, and she thought she\u2019d be able to provide her son with everything he\u2019d want. She was, of course, ashamed of what she\u2019d done in the past, and she feared her son would never accept her. But she decided to take a chance and meet her boy for the first, and possibly, final time. Unfortunately, she was correct in the sense that things would go wrong. \u201cMy mom? You must be kidding me!\u201d Matthew lashed out at her when she met him. \u201cWhere have you been all these years? I don\u2019t need you! I am happy with my adoptive parents.\u201d Rhonda\u2019s eyes welled up when Matthew said that. She had approached the local police for assistance, telling them her entire story, and luckily, one of the helpful officers had assisted her in locating her son. Initially, she had feared that she would never find Matthew because he could have been adopted by anyone in the world and given a different name. She was lucky enough to begin her search in New York and find him there by the name she had given him.She contacted Matthew\u2019s adoptive mother, explaining why she had abandoned him and chosen the name Matthew Harris for him. It turned out the boy was adopted by Lincy, the flight attendant, and her husband.\n
She was hesitant to introduce Rhonda to Matthew after how she\u2019d left him, but she eventually agreed to give her a chance to explain herself upon learning her story. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Matthew,\u201d Rhonda said. \u201cI know you\u2019re upset, and you don\u2019t want to accept me, but can\u2019t you give me one chance?\u201d \u201cNo way!\u201d the boy yelled. \u201cYou are a mean woman who left me all alone. If my parents didn\u2019t adopt me, I\u2019d be in an orphanage today!\u201d \u201cBut Matthew,\u201d Rhonda said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to do that. Will you not let me explain why I left you?\u201d Matthew was reluctant to do so, but he agreed after his parents persuaded him. Rhonda didn\u2019t tell him about the early pregnancy or how she was kicked out because he was only 13. But she told him she was poor and that his father had left her. Lincy went on to explain that it was difficult for Rhonda to provide a good life for him, so she gave him up. However, Matthew still didn\u2019t want to accept her as his mother.\n
\u201cI can forgive you, maybe,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I can\u2019t call you mom. I have only one mother.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s all right, Matthew,\u201d Rhonda said. \u201cCan I come to see you at least on weekends?\u201d\u201cOk, I don\u2019t mind that,\u201d the boy said. It\u2019s been ten years since that fateful day. Matthew is now 23 years old and works as a data scientist in New York City. With time, he forgave Rhonda for what she had done and accepted her as his mother, realizing that whatever she had done was a compulsion. Rhonda recently met a man named Andrew at work, and the two have been dating for a month. Rhonda wants to marry him, but first, she intends to talk to Matthew about it. She also met Mrs. Bamford when she went to Texas two years ago, and the older woman was glad that things worked out for her. What can we learn from this story? Time heals everything. Matthew realized over time that Rhonda wasn\u2019t entirely to blame for what happened that fateful day she left him. There\u2019s no point in dwelling on the past. Matthew understood it and forgave Rhonda.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Woman Leaves Newborn on Business Class Plane Seat, Decides to Find Him 13 Years Later \u2014 Story of the Day A woman abandons her newborn baby on a business plane seat because she fears she won\u2019t be able to care for him, but when things improve for her several years later, she decides to find\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":84818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[855],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-84810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-story"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/161.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}