When one United flight attendant found that a passenger had left a book behind thousands of miles from its home, she took it and mailed it home.
Flight attendant Lin Kullick noticed the book, The Lemon Grove, left behind on a Chicago to London flight on December 22nd. She noted that the book had Naperville Public Library stickers on it. Naperville, Illinois is a bit west of Chicago.
Rather than leave it behind to get buried in the bowels of Heathrow lost and found, she took it with her. When she returned home to Chicago a couple days later she mailed it back to the Naperville Public Library with the following note attached:
Hello, I am a United Airlines flight attendant. I found this book on my Chicago/London flight on December 22. I would like to return it to its home on Naperville shelves, as I know it will grow homesick away from them.
The book made in back (in time to avoid fines). When the patron, Seema Goel, found out her lost booked had been found she was overjoyed. But when she found out the exact circumstances of the book’s return, she was even more thankful. See the video below.
Asked later about it, Kullick shrugged and said, “I did what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to put a book back on the shelf. That’s where it belongs.”
Yes, but what you did was unique and well beyond the call of duty, especially in London.
CONCLUSION
Little gestures of kindness like this make the world a more livable place. I cover so many negative stories that it nice to cover a positive one like this once in a while.
There are many good employees at United, but we generally only hear about the bad ones.
That is a gross exaggeration. They might be “good” according to 2019 US3 standards, but they are average to terrible using any other comparison.
The patron should still donate the amount of the book cost to the library charity fund.
That is so sweet. It is great to see some positive news! Thank you!
You should write for Hemispheres
Didn’t find my iPad
Did you track it on iCloud?
Nice triple pun in the headline. Hope I’m not the only one who noticed it.
I hope not too! 😉
Happy ending, but it could just have easily been the introduction to an episode of “Banged Up Abroad”.
Airline crews are trained to avoid transporting articles of unknown origin or for unknown parties, and for a good reason. There are too many instances of unwitting airline crew couriers losing their careers over well meaning actions.
Lovely. Plus it’s a good book.