A grieving mother has shared the heartbreaking note she received from a flight attendant

Flight attendant's heartbreaking note gave encouragement to grieving mother. Photo / Facebook

By Julia Corderoy

Never underestimate the impact a small, kind gesture can have on a complete stranger.

A grieving mother has shared the heartbreaking note she received from a flight attendant on board a Southwest Airlines flight this month, and described how it changed her path.

Trisha Belstra was on her way to her son's burial on August 18 when she wasn't feeling well on the flight.

"I sat in my seat between two strangers holding a barf bag down low between my legs," she said in a Facebook post.

"Then this young man came by; I wish I would have gotten his name. He was getting drink requests. I asked for a diet coke and another glass of water. He leaned in and asked if I was okay. I told him I was flying back to bury my son. He said he was so sorry and brought me a can of water, a glass of ice and my diet coke."

But the flight attendant couldn't stop thinking about Belstra and her pain the entire flight. When the plane landed, the unidentified crew member waited for her to disembark.

"As I am leaving the plane the young man who waited on me was standing on the landing and as I walked off the plane he stopped me and handed me a napkin and said he was sorry for my loss and this wasn't much. I said thank you and walked out."

The heartbreaking note, which she also shared on Facebook, gave her unexpected but encouraging advice.

"In 2004, my family lost my older brother. As traumatic as it still is for me, I can't even pretend to truly know the pain you feel as a mother. I did, however, watch my mother's grieving process (a process that will never end)," he wrote.

"My mum struggled desperately chasing a far away goal of somehow lessening the pain. As she has realised now, the pain hardly lessens. Don't expend your energy trying to chase this. Instead, go all out finding opportunities to experience joy. Visit family, get closer to those you've lost touch with, travel."

"I couldn't tell this story until now.. I flew in on Southwest Airlines flight 1076 on August 18th. I was not looking or...

Posted by Love What Matters on Thursday, 24 August 2017

"You'll come out of this a stronger person and I'll be rooting for you the whole time."

A note on a napkin doesn't seem like much, but when Belstra read it, she said his touching words bought her to tears.

"When I got to where I was out of the walkway I looked at the napkin he gave me and cried. I had Father Mike bless him and he said he was one of God's soul angels. Please share this and I hope it gets back to him. Thank you so much for your kind words from a person that took the time to write this not even knowing me."

Belstra shared the Facebook post on the Facebook community, Love What Matters, in a bid to try and find the flight attendant to thank him.

It had been shared more than 2000 times and "liked" more than 20,000 times at the time of writing.