A Woman Abandoned Her Newborn Baby on a Plane Seat – 13 Years Later, She Returns to Find Him
Rhonda was just a 16-year-old girl when she discovered she was pregnant. Her life took a dramatic turn when she told her father, David Harris, about the baby. David, a wealthy man who owned a large textile company, was not pleased with the news. He had always controlled Rhonda’s life and expected her to follow his wishes.
When Rhonda told him she was pregnant, he was furious. “PREGNANT?! You must be out of your mind, Rhonda!” he yelled. Her father didn’t support her decision to keep the baby and told her she would need to figure out how to raise the child on her own.
“You’re going to get rid of that child, Rhonda. Do you get it?” David said firmly. Rhonda, however, had made up her mind. She refused to abort the baby and told her father she would raise the child by herself. David was unimpressed and gave her an ultimatum: if she kept the baby, she would have to leave his home.
Feeling unsupported, Rhonda packed her bags and left that night, cutting all ties with her father. She ended up at Peter’s house, the father of her child, hoping he would help her. But to her shock, Peter turned his back on her too.
Peter said, “Look, babe, I’m not ready to be a father. You should have stayed with your family. Your father could have helped us.” Rhonda couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Peter had once been excited about the pregnancy, but now he was abandoning her. “If you keep the baby, we’re over,” Peter said, slamming the door in her face.
With no one on her side, Rhonda left Peter’s house in tears, unsure where to go. As she wandered the streets, a sharp pain hit her stomach. She was going into labor. Desperate for help, Rhonda pleaded with strangers, but no one paid attention. Just when things seemed hopeless, a woman named Angela Bamford noticed her and helped her into her car. Angela rushed her to the hospital, where Rhonda gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
The next morning, as Rhonda recovered, Angela sat by her bedside. “Thank you for helping me,” Rhonda whispered, worried about the future of her child. Angela was sympathetic to Rhonda’s situation and listened as Rhonda shared her heartbreaking story.
“I can’t take care of him,” Rhonda sobbed. “I’m homeless, and I don’t know how I’ll provide for him.”
Angela shared a painful memory with Rhonda. “I had a daughter your age once. When we found out she was pregnant, we kicked her out. She couldn’t handle it and took her own life. I don’t want anyone else to go through what she did.”
Angela offered to help Rhonda. “I’ll buy you a ticket. You can start over and give your baby a better life.” Rhonda was hesitant but eventually agreed to take the help. Angela arranged for Rhonda and her newborn to fly from Texas to New York, where Rhonda hoped to build a new life.
On the plane, Rhonda’s mind was filled with worry. She was terrified of the future and whether she could care for her son. As the plane landed at JFK, Rhonda’s fears overwhelmed her. She was scared she wouldn’t be able to provide a good life for her baby in a new city. In a moment of desperation, Rhonda made a heartbreaking decision.
She left her baby on the plane seat with a note. She hoped someone would take him in and give him the life she couldn’t. As the other passengers disembarked, she quickly exited the plane, feeling torn but convinced it was for the best.
A flight attendant named Lincy discovered the baby when the plane was empty. She was shocked to find the note left by Rhonda. It read: *“I’m a poor mother who couldn’t care for my child. Please accept him as your own. I hope you name him Matthew Harris.”* Lincy was moved by the message and decided to take action.
**Thirteen Years Later**
For 13 years, Rhonda struggled with homelessness and poverty in New York City. She had gone through a lot, but eventually, she was able to find a steady job and start rebuilding her life. However, every day, she felt the weight of her decision to leave Matthew behind.
Now that Rhonda was financially stable, she felt ready to face the guilt she had carried for years. She decided to search for Matthew, the son she had left behind. With the help of a police officer, she was able to track him down. To her surprise, Matthew had been adopted by Lincy, the flight attendant who had discovered him on the plane.
Rhonda reached out to Lincy, explaining everything that had happened. Lincy was hesitant but agreed to help Rhonda explain herself to Matthew. When Rhonda met Matthew for the first time in 13 years, he was angry and confused.
“My mom? You must be kidding me!” Matthew shouted. “Where have you been all these years? I don’t need you! I’m happy with my adoptive parents.”
Rhonda’s heart sank. “Matthew, please listen to me,” she begged. “I never wanted to leave you. I didn’t have a choice. I was poor, and your father had abandoned me. I didn’t know what to do.”
Matthew wasn’t ready to accept her explanation. “You left me alone! I don’t care what you say. I have a family now.”
Lincy, seeing the tension between them, stepped in. “Matthew, I know this is hard. But your mother is trying to explain herself. Please, just give her a chance to talk.”
Rhonda was devastated by Matthew’s anger but knew she had to try. “I can’t undo what I did, but I’ve changed. Can you give me a chance? I just want to be a part of your life.”
Matthew paused for a moment, his emotions conflicted. “I don’t know… I can forgive you, maybe. But I can’t call you ‘mom.’ I already have a mother.”
Rhonda nodded, tears streaming down her face. “That’s okay. Can I at least see you on weekends?”
Matthew agreed, and over time, their relationship began to heal.
Today, Matthew is a 23-year-old data scientist in New York City. He has forgiven Rhonda for abandoning him and accepted her back into his life. Rhonda, now in a stable relationship with a man named Andrew, is grateful for the chance to rebuild her relationship with her son. She even met Angela again when she returned to Texas, and the older woman was happy to see that Rhonda had turned her life around.
This story is one of pain, loss, and redemption. Rhonda’s journey shows that even the hardest decisions can lead to healing when both sides are willing to try.
Daughter pulls off the wig of a girl with cancer, father forces her to shave her hair as punishment
As parents, we tend to teach our children to know right from wrong, but oftentimes, because of different reasons, we fail. One father learned that his daughter was bullying a girl who had cancer at school. Things went far and she even pulled the girl’s wig off. This made the father angry so he decided to take matters in his own hands and punished his daughter in a way that caused a stir, as well as mixed emotions, on the Internet. Since many slammed him for how he dealt with his bully daughter, the father later deleted the post.
“My ex-wife and I have a 16-year-old daughter together of which I have full custody (she has moved on with her new family)… My daughter recently got in trouble at school for making fun of a student that lost her hair from cancer treatment. Including pulling off her wig,” he started his post.
“Apparently there is some pre-existing bad blood between the two of them, but I don’t think that even begins to excuse her behavior.”
As it turned out, his daughter was now dating this other girl’s ex-boyfriend and that was the reason why they weren’t fond of each other.
“At some point the other girl mentioned how my daughter’s boyfriend was just using her for sex (this was actually a big shock to me as I had no idea she was sexually active) and called my daughter a sl*t,” the father shared with CafeMom. “That’s what escalated the situation and resulted in the wig incident. Supposedly they have been arguing in class ever since my daughter started dating the guy in question. Basically just stupid teenage ‘he said she said’ nonsense.”After he learned of what was going on and what his daughter did, he gave her two options to choose from in order to teach her a lesson. The first one was for him to throw all her electronics away, and the second one was for her to go to the hairdresser and get a bald haircut. The daughter chose the latter and went to school with a bald head.
“…Everyone thinks I went way overboard. Her mother went ballistic at me saying it will make her the target of bullying (kind of the point, teach her some compassion),” the father wrote.
He believed he did just the right thing, but not many agreed with him. A lot of people took their time to comment on the situation. One person wrote: “Your daughter is a bully because you are a bully. I seriously doubt this is the first time you used abuse and humiliation to ‘teach her a lesson.’” Another person added: “There’s a term for what you did. It’s called child abuse. Taking away her electronics would have been an appropriate punishment. Grounding her would have been an appropriate punishment. Disrespecting her right to bodily autonomy and humiliating her is not an appropriate punishment. She’s unlikely to learn from it and if anything it risks perpetuating a cycle of bullying.”
However, there were also those who praised his parenting. “I support your decision completely. You’re her parent so you have every right to do this, it’s not abusive, it’s real life. If she’s comfortable attacking someone for something they have no choice over she needs to see how it feels,” someone in support of the father wrote.
“She will see what kind of impact actions like hers have on the victim and that will teach her a very important lesson,” another supporter added.
So, what do you think? Do you believe the father went too far with the punishment? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.
Cover image: Representational (Source: Getty Images | Photo by Claudia Evans / EyeEm)
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