Stranger Spends Nearly $900 To Help Airman Get Home to See Dying Father
When Airman 1st Class Brittany Bunker learned her father’s health was failing on April 2, 2018, she knew she needed to get home.
This was no easy task, according to her own story posted on Love What Matters.
From her military post, travel home would require four flights, with her service dog, to get her home by midnight on April 3rd so she’d have the opportunity to say good-bye.
Brittany’s first flight was late to take off and she missed her 2nd connection. She was panicked but the airline told her there was one more flight she could catch to her next destination.
Chicago NBC5 News reports, “She was about to board the flight when she says a man, Tim Gerdeman, a partner at communications firm, approached. He told her he had served in the National Guard and had grown up near Bunker’s hometown, and then he showed her some pictures of his own dog.”
Before their flight landed, Bunker learned her last flight had been cancelled.
She was texting and talking with her family members on the phone while she tried to work out a new plan with the airlines. The attendants found her a flight at 11:30 and some family members planned to drive five hours to pick her up.
Brittney explained what happened next. “Then, the man I met before boarding my second flight came up to me while he was on the phone. He told me he was arranging for a professional driving company to drive me from the airport straight to my house, all at his expense.”
Airman Bunker was, at first, hesitant, but he showed the receipts to the flight attendants. He also sent a photo of the car, driver, and license plate to the attendants and told Bunker he just wanted to know she arrived home safely.
Bunker was safely driven five hours from Chicago airport to her front door, arriving at 3 am on April 4th. She was shocked when the driver told her he’d been paid $900 for the trip.
“There really are good people in this world, and I will never be able to thank him enough for what he did. But I hope one day I will be able to pay it forward to someone in need like it was done for me.”
“Thanks to this man’s selflessness, I was able to make it home and say goodbye to my father before he passed a day later on the morning of April 5.”
Gerdeman issued a statement to NBC 5 that he paid for the ride out of “respect for active military personnel.”
“While I appreciate all the well wishes, I respectfully request that the focus return to the soldiers currently serving our country around the world, as well as to all military veterans.”
“Rather than thanking me, I ask that everyone simply try to find their own individual way to show thanks to our military personnel they know or meet, as I did with Ms. Bunker.”
That will be our honor.
