Thursday 16 June 2016

Orlando victim's grandmother overwhelmed with messages of support on a plane

Luis 976 

Passengers on a US flight alongside the grandmother of an Orlando shooting victim have written "inspiring" pages of condolences to her.


Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20, was among the 49 people shot dead inside the Pulse nightclub in Florida.

He was the youngest victim of the attack carried out by gunman Omar Mateen on Saturday 11 June.

When his grandmother took a flight to attend his funeral, airline staff decided to covertly organise a tribute.

"I had the idea to pass around a piece of paper to everyone on board and invite them to sign it for this grieving grandmother," Kelly Davis Karas wrote on Facebook.

They gave the woman a blanket, a pillow, a box of tissues and water "so she could be as comfortable as possible".

And then they began gathering notes from other passengers.
"As we took beverage orders, we whispered a heads up about the plan as we went," she explains.

She then describes how a colleague, Melinda, soon warned her that they were running out of paper.

"Folks are writing PARAGRAPHS."

With the flight to Orlando taking a little over an hour, the two flight attendants feared they would run out of time.

"We handed out pieces of paper to everyone still waiting," Kelly writes.
"When we gathered them together to present them to her, we didn't have just a sheet of paper covered in names.

"Instead, we had page after page after page after page of long messages offering condolences, peace, love and support."

And passengers didn't just write notes, they stopped to personally offer their sympathy.

Kelly explains: "As we deplaned, EVERY SINGLE PERSON STOPPED TO OFFER HER THEIR CONDOLENCES.

"Some just said they were sorry, some touched her hand, some hugged her, some cried with her."

She called the whole experience "truly inspiring" and her Facebook post has been shared more than 60,000 times.

"I have moved to tears yet again as I struggle to put our experience into words."

Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, known as Omar by friends, was a dancer and barista and described as a "happy soul".

JetBlue confirmed the tribute took place but told Newsbeat that members of staff are not doing interviews at the moment.

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