Train passenger taps mom on the shoulder and hands her a note she can’t stop reading
Sammie Welch and her 3-year-old son Rylan are from Plymouth in southwest England. And in 2015 the pair was on a 6-hour train ride when a passenger tapped her on the shoulder.
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Everyone knows it’s tough to be a mom traveling with a small child. And it’s probably really hard to be a kiddo who has to sit still and keep quiet for hours on end!
It was the second train they had taken on their long trip and both of them were tired. And Rylan…well, Rylan was 3.
Even “best behavior” isn’t always charming to fellow passengers – and you can only expect so much from a toddler in that situation.
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Welch was doing her best. The 23-year-old mom did everything she could to keep him amused and soothe him.
She played games with the tot and had music queued up for him to enjoy and finally got him to fall asleep, after which she offered to transfer him to her lap to free up a seat for other passengers.
As the train stopped at the Bristol station, a man approached the young mom.
“As he walked by he tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘I think you’ve dropped this out of your bag,’ handed me the note and got off,” she told the Daily Mail.
Confused, she took the note and he was gone.
She opened it to find words that would bring tears to her eyes.
Wrapped around a £5 bill was a note that read:
“Have a drink on me. You are a credit to your generation – polite & teaching the little boy good manners.”
She turned it over to find a further explanation:
“P.S. I have a daughter your age. Someone did the same for her once! Hope when she has children she is as good a mother as you!”
He signed it: “Man on train at table in glasses & hat. Have a lovely evening.”
Welch told the Daily Mail that she was “overwhelmed” by the gesture.
“I was just being a normal mum, but when I read the note I felt this incredible warmth. I’ve read it so many times now —you should see the state of it. And every time I read it, I feel warm again. Its effect hasn’t gone and I don’t think it ever will.”
She immediately tried to track him down by posting the sweet message on Facebook, telling the BBC that she simply wanted to thank him.
“I never had the chance to thank him as he got off and I couldn’t move due to my son being asleep on me and a man sat next to me,” she said. “He shows there are still good people out there and I want him to know I am truly grateful.”
Welch said she was used to feeling judged as a single mother but that the note made her feel “special and proud.”
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“It really shocked me that there was money with the note, especially as money is tight for a lot of people these days.”
She put the cash into Rylan’s savings account.
Days later, 50-year-old Ken Saunders read about the viral plea and decided to reveal himself and they got the chance to meet.
Be sure to scroll down below to see Welch and Rylan on Good Morning Britain and then further for a video reunion of the trio.
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Source: BBC News, Daily Mail UK, Instagram – @sammieeee91, Facebook – SWNS