Alone and grieving at the airport, 2 strangers comforted her. Now she needs to find them.
A Nebraska woman who collapsed in grief at Denver's airport is now searching for the mother-and-daughter strangers who stopped to comfort her.
Kyndra Smith's nightmare began on the night of Oct. 22, when a hospital in San Diego called to tell her that her 60-year-old mother was dying and didn't have much time left.
Smith, who lives in Papillion, Nebraska, got on the first flight she could, only there was a layover in Denver.
As Smith headed to her connecting flight, an even worse call came in: Hospital staff had been performing CPR on her mom for more than eight minutes and there was no hope she'd survive. Smith told them to stop CPR to end her mom’s suffering.
Then, right in the middle of the airport, she sank to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
"I just lost it completely," she said.
An act of kindness
As Smith wept on the floor, passenger after passenger walked by. For about a minute, no one stopped.
"Then this lady came over and she just hugged me from above," Smith told USA TODAY this week. "She kind of bent down and she started praying over me."
Eventually the women stood up and hugged tightly for several minutes. The woman was about the same age as Smith's mom and was traveling with her grown daughter and son, and a man who may have been her husband.
Once Smith was able to tell them why she was crying so hard, she said both the mother and daughter had profound words of comfort for her that she still thinks about every day. They also made sure she got on her flight to San Diego and looked out for her until takeoff.
Smith's mother died two hours before Smith landed in San Diego.
'Your mama found you'
Now, four months later, Smith is desperate to find the mother-and-daughter strangers whose act of kindness comforted her during the worst time of her life.
On Sunday, Smith shared her story on TikTok, describing the only details she can remember during the fog of grief.
The mother wore a big dragonfly necklace and was probably in her 50s.
The daughter was roughly 30, had rainbow-colored hair and was possibly wearing Harry Potter leggings.
The women had also flown from Omaha and were on Smith's same flight to San Diego, United flight 2309, on Oct. 23.
"I would love if I could thank them so if you know who this is from Omaha, Nebraska, please help me out," Smith said in the TikTok. "I have zero hope that this is going to work but if it could, I would be so thankful."
Since she posted the video on Sunday, it has gotten more than 1 million views, something Smith did not anticipate.
"I truly thought that it would maybe reach 100 people," she said.
Thousands of people left comments on Smith's video.
"Oh friend ... You couldn't make it to your mom so your mama found you," one user wrote.
"That was her soul hugging you goodbye," another wrote. And another: "I'm glad you had some guardian angels on the ground to support you."
One more hug
Smith has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love. She's relatively new to TikTok and only started posting on the app in January to share her emotional journey with in vitro fertilization – something she probably would have just told her mom before October.
"My mom was my person that I would call and tell everything to and there was kind of that emptiness of like, 'Who do I talk to now?'" she said. "So I just randomly decided to post on TikTok ... and it's kind of given me that outlet that I lost when my mom died."
She said her mom, Terri Jensen, was brimming with life. In fact, just two months before her death, Jensen went skydiving for her 60th birthday.
"She just had so much brightness around her and she was just such a light in this world." Smith said. "I was lucky to have her as my mom."
When she died, Jensen left behind three daughters, a son and two grandchildren who are 16 and 20. She had been looking forward to the birth of her third grandson, who was born two weeks after her death.
In addition to the few details Smith can recall about the stand-in mom who helped her in Denver, she couldn't help but notice some similarities the woman had with her own mother.
She was wearing bright clothing – Jensen's signature – and her hands looked just like her mother's, down to a perfect manicure. Smith also recently learned that many believe dragonflies like the one on the woman's necklace are a sign that a lost loved one is nearby.
If she can find the women, she'll "tell them how big of a difference they made in that moment for me."
"And if I could hug the mom one more time, oh my gosh, it would just feel so great," she said. "I just feel like she was put in that moment for a reason."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nebraska woman searching for strangers who comforted her at airport
