When it comes to the minimum age to fly, airlines have varying standards. Some airlines allow neonates as young as two days old to fly. Others insist on babies being at least two weeks old. Rubin Swift was completely unaware of this potential problem. He was told he couldn’t board a Frontier Airlines flight in Phoenix, Arizona, with his four-day-old infant child, Ru-Andria. He lacked confirmation of her age and wouldn’t be able to obtain her birth certificate for several days. According to airline policy, his daughter had to be seven days old to fly.
Swift, 43, found out he had a newborn daughter at the same moment he found out he would have full custody of her. Despite the fact that it had come as a surprise, he did not hesitate. He quickly flew to Phoenix to retrieve his daughter and return her to Cleveland, Ohio.He intended to return to Cleveland immediately after picking up his daughter. He didn’t have any spare cash or a place to stay in Phoenix.
When the airline informed him that he would not be able to fly home that day, he requested a ticket refund, expecting to utilize the money to help him and his daughter get through the following few days away from home. However, the airline informed him that he would not be refunded for seven days. “I was out of money and the hospital told me that I wouldn’t be able to get a birth certificate for seven days,” Swift said in a statement.
“I was afraid that if security saw me sleeping with a newborn at the airport, they’d take her away and charge me with neglect.” “I was trapped.”Swift has three adult children from a previous marriage, as well as four stepchildren from his marriage to Tiffany. After the airline refused him the ticket, he called his wife and they discussed their choices, which were limited. They didn’t have enough money to rent him a car or pay for him to stay in a hotel room for several days.
Swift remembered one person he’d met during his stay in Phoenix: Joy Ringhofer, a volunteer at Banner University Medical Center, where Ru-Andria was born. He’d met her in the NICU, where Ru-Andria had been admitted as a precaution. Swift and Ringhofer had become close in the NICU. Swift had told her about his new and unexpected circumstance, and she could see that he was already a loving and dedicated father to his child. Ringhofer had offered to drive Swift and Ru-Andria to the airport, and she had given him her phone number in case he needed anything.
Swift reached out to Ringhofer, 78, when he was denied seats on the plane and had no one else to turn to. “I didn’t expect her to say what she said… ‘I’m going to get you and take you home,’ Swift declared. “So I’m thinking she is gonna drive me back to Cleveland, but she actually brought me to her house, feeding me and making sure my baby is all right.” They stayed together at Ringhofer’s house for a few days until Swift and Ru-Andria could return.
They went for walks, went food shopping, and even paid a visit to Ringhofer’s late husband’s cemetery. “I’m black, she’s white.” “I’m a stranger from the Bronx who grew up in the projects, and she’s a great-grandmother who recently lost her husband,” Swift explained. “She knew very little about me, but she took me in anyway.” Color didn’t bother her. She demonstrated that there is still compassion in this terrible world.”Swift insists on referring to Ringhofer as Ru-Andria’s grandmother.
“I could see the pain in her face from losing her husband, so at the cemetery, as we sat there with the baby, I said, ‘Hey, Charles, look — it’s your new granddaughter,'” Swift recalled. “There were some very touching and wonderful moments.” Joy became like a mother or grandmother figure to me after I lost my mother to cancer in 2007.”Ringhofer is head over heels in love with Ru-Andria. “She’s just beautiful and wonderful,” Ringhofer exclaimed. “She’s been wonderful. I’m going to miss her terribly.” Swift and Ringhofer have agreed to keep in touch.