The 15-year-old girl who comforted a blind and deaf man on a flight with sign language has spoken out about the moment that warmed hearts across the nation.
Pictures of Clara Daly signing into the hand of Tim Cook on their Alaska Airlines flight from Boston to Portland last week quickly went viral.
And while many – including Cook himself – have called Clara an angel, the Los Angeles teen revealed she was nervous she was going to say something wrong.
Clara Day, the 15-year-old who comforted a blind and deaf man on a flight with sign language (pictured), has spoken out about the moment that warmed hearts across the nation
Pictures of Clara Daly signing into the hand of Tim Cook on their Alaska Airlines flight from Boston to Portland last week quickly went viral
Clara is dyslexic and began learning sign language last year.
‘English is already a hard language for me,’ she told CBS Los Angeles.
‘I saw sign language as a way to communicate without having to read and write.’
But Clara didn’t hesitate to volunteer when a flight attendant asked if anyone on the plane knew American Sign Language.
While the flight crew did their best to ensure Cook was comfortable and well looked after, they struggled to communicate with him.
‘They thought that he might need something and they weren’t sure how to communicate,’ Clara said.
That’s when the teen stepped up to help.
‘I pressed the call button and then [the flight attendant] came and she said “So we have a passenger on the plane who’s blind and deaf, do you know how to finger spell?”‘ Clara recalled.
Clara is dyslexic and began learning sign language last year as it was the easiest new language for her to learn, she revealed
And while she’s only been learning it for a year, Clara didn’t hesitate to volunteer when a flight attendant asked if anyone on the plane knew American Sign Language
‘And I was like, “Yeah, I totally know how to finger spell”‘.
Clara said Cook first told her he would like a water and asked how much time was left in the flight.
She then returned to her seat, before an attendant came back and said Cook had asked for her again.
‘He didn’t need anything. He was just lonely and wanted to talk,’ Clara said.
And so they did, chatting about life for the last hour of the flight.
‘I was thinking, “Wow, this is so cool, I hope I don’t spell anything wrong”‘, Clara recalled.
‘For the last hour of the flight we just were talking, having a conversation about life.’
‘They call you extraordinary but it’s just something that you do. He took such joy in a conversation that we take for granted.’
Clara (pictured with her parents Bill and Jane) said she did worry she would spell something wrong while signing with Cook
Clara said she has found it funny that her story is getting so much attention.
‘Doing something like that is just what anyone would have done,’ she said.
But her parents, Jane and Bill, said they couldn’t be prouder.
Doing something like that is just what anyone would have done
‘It was immeasurable before but it’s even…what’s infinity times infinity?’ said Bill.
‘She has an amazing soul,’ added Jane. ‘I just felt like this was a story that people would want to hear.’
Cook himself has called Clara an ‘angel’, and she also won high praise from Lynette Scribner, who was seated next to him.
Scribner took to Facebook just moments after stepping off the plane to tell Clara and Cook’s amazing story.
Her post and photos of Clara signing into the palm of Cook’s hand mid-flight have now been liked more than 950,000 times.
‘I saw this man, Tim, in Boston’s Logan airport with the sister he’d been visiting…it appeared he was both deaf and blind,’ Scribner posted.
‘The attendants sincerely wanted to assist him, but had no way to communicate. I watched as they didn’t flinch when he reached out to touch their faces and arms.’
Clara’s parents, Jane and Bill (pictured), said they couldn’t be prouder of their daughter, adding that she has an ‘amazing soul’
‘That’s when this lovely young woman came into the picture. It was fascinating to watch as she signed one letter at a time into his hand.’
‘When he asked if she was pretty she blushed and laughed as the seat mate, who had learned a few signs, communicated an enthusiastic “yes” to Tim.
‘For the rest of the flight she attended to Tim and made sure his needs were met.’
‘All of us in the immediate rows were laughing and smiling and enjoying his obvious delight in having someone to talk to.’
‘I can’t say enough about this beautiful woman named Clara who didn’t think twice about helping her fellow passenger.’
‘It was a beautiful reminder, in this time of too much awfulness, that there are still good, good people who are willing to look out for each other.’
The post of a fellow passenger has gone viral on social media, with more than 950,000 likes