Arlene sent her seven-year-old, Justin, to visit his father, Pierce, in Orlando. Pierce waited for his son in anticipation of all the fun they would have, but his flight had allegedly arrived, and his son was nowhere to be found. That’s when both parents started worrying and realized their shocking mistake.
Arlene and her son, Justin, were at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia. The seven-year-old was about to board a flight to Orland, Florida, where his father, Pierce, awaited him. It was the first time he had traveled as an unaccompanied minor, but luckily, the airline attendant made her feel safe.
“It’s going to be alright. Many minors travel alone around the country, and we should reach your husband in time,” she stated. “He’ll have an escort, and this flight is best because there are no connections. Everything will be perfect.”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Arlene nodded, her face filled with emotion. Justin might be growing, but he was still a child. It was hard to let him go, mainly because he hadn’t seen his father in years. After their bitter divorce, Pierce moved from Virginia to Orlando, Florida, and he was busy most of the time.
“How is that possible?” Arlene wailed, almost starting to cry from the worry and exasperation. But something occurred to her at that moment. “Give me a second.”
However, his company had just given him a two-week vacation, and he invited Justin to come to spend time with him. They were going to the theme parks, so that Arlene couldn’t say no. Her son was too excited because he loved everything relating to superheroes and dinosaurs. It was his dream.
But now, she was almost regretting it. “Ok, Justin. You’re going to with this lady and get on the plane. Listen to the adults around. Don’t run off from your escort, and you’ll reach your dad soon. When you land in Orlando, you call me immediately. And then, call me again when you meet your father. Understand?” she requested, kneeling in front of the kid and holding his arms tenderly.
“Yes, Mom!” he replied, smiling and doing a makeshift military salute. This kid had a great sense of humor. He was going to love that trip.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“Ok. Love you. Go on!” she continued and watched as Justin grabbed the attendant’s hand and entered the gate.
She thought about leaving but sat down at an airport café. She was going to wait for the plane to take off. But once she saw that the flight had taken off, she decided to stay and wait for Justin’s call if anything happened. After all, the flight was less than two hours long. The time would pass quickly.
***
Meanwhile, Pierce was waiting for Justin at Orlando International Airport, and he couldn’t wait. He was just as excited as the kid to see all the attractions at the park. It was crazy that he had lived in the city for years but had yet to attend. His work kept him way too busy. This trip was going to be amazing.
He arrived an hour before Justin’s flight and went to the arrival area to wait for him. Finally, the flight landed, and Pierce got closer to the gate so his son could see him immediately. “I should have made a sign,” he muttered to himself as he saw other people waiting for their loved ones. It was too late now. He stayed in the front at all times.
However, many passengers came out, and there was no Justin. According to the unaccompanied minor service, Arlene said that he would have top priority. So, someone should have brought him out already. He didn’t want to call her yet to avoid worrying her. Maybe, Justin had to go to the bathroom, which could explain the delay. He would wait for a while.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
But at one point, no other passengers were coming out of the arrival area. It had been an hour since the plane landed. It shouldn’t take that long. He approached someone from the airline and started asking questions. An attendant came to assist him.
“I’m sorry, sir. There was no one by the name of Justin on that flight. We have no record of an unaccompanied minor serviced hired for it either,” the attendant, shocking Pierce.
“That’s impossible. Please, check again,” he demanded, trying to stay calm, but the sweat on his forehead gave away his fears.
The assistant typed away on her computer, and Pierce’s phone rang. It was Arlene. Hopefully, she knew what was going on. “Hello?”
“Hey, Pierce. Why didn’t you guys call me when Justin arrived? I told him to call me when the plane landed and when you met with him,” Arlene wondered, and he could tell that she was agitated for some reason.
“Arlene, listen. I’m sorry to say this, but Justin has not arrived. An attendant here said that he was not on the flight. I don’t understand what’s going on,” he was forced to reveal, and Arlene yelled in his ear.
“No! That’s crazy! NO! Tell the attendant to check again!” she started yelling. “I’m going to talk to someone on my end too. I’m still at the airport.”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“Ok. Listen, calm down. Everything will be alright. There must be a mix-up or something,” he said, trying to calm his ex-wife because he knew she was prone to hysterics.
“I’m not calming down! This is our child, Pierce! Talk to you later!” she screamed and hung up.
“Sir, like I said. There was no Justin on the flight. There’s nothing I can do. Are you sure this is the airline?” the attendant asked.
“Yes! It’s the only flight that arrived at this time from Virginia! My son was on that flight. My ex-wife just confirmed. Please, help me, miss. He’s only seven. Can you call anyone? Should I call the police?” Pierce started asking questions rapidly. The attendant sighed and grabbed her phone.
***
“Justin, where are you? Why didn’t you call me sooner? What’s happening?” Arlene asked desperately on her phone.
“Mom, we have been trying to find Dad for hours, and he’s nowhere. Did you talk to him?” the little boy said through the phone.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“Your father is right at the arrival area. He’s just as worried as I am. Please, give the phone to your escort,” Arlene requested and demanded an explanation from the woman, who only reiterated what Justin said earlier. There was no Pierce anywhere in the airport.
She told them to wait until she called again and dialed her ex’s number. “Pierce, Justin called me and said they’ve been looking for you for a long time. What’s going on?” she said, one hand running through her hair in frustration. She knew Justin was safe, but there was no reason why they couldn’t find each other.
“There’s no way, Arlene. That’s impossible. People here are saying he was not on the flight!” Pierce stated.
“How is that possible?” Arlene wailed, almost starting to cry from the worry and exasperation. But something occurred to her at that moment. “Give me a second.”
She went to her emails where she had sent Pierce the flight details. However, she had written them instead of sending a screenshot, and she suddenly realized her big mistake. “Pierce,” she started, again putting the phone in her ear. “Where are you?”
“What do you mean? I’m at Orlando International Airport. Why?” Pierce questioned, confused by her words. But something clicked in his brain at that moment.
“Justin arrived at Orlando Sanford International Airport!” Arlene yelled, and Pierce took off in a run.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“Jesus! Arlene, why didn’t you say that in your email! Most flights got to MCO!” he scolded her breathlessly as he ran to his car. “I’ll be there in 30 minutes!”
While Pierce was on his way, Arlene called Justin and explained to his escort what had happened. She was relieved too, and they waited for Pierce to arrive.
Less than an hour later, Justin called her. “I’m with Dad, Mom! Thank you for helping me! I’ll send you pics of Disney soon!”
Arlene hung up the phone with her son and breathed deeply as if she couldn’t get enough air in her lungs. Finally, she walked to her car.
What can we learn from this story?
- You must send all the details of a flight and check several times. These poor parents worried so much because they had not communicated well enough. Luckily, nothing happened, and they resolved the issue.
- It’s always best to fly with your kids. While an unaccompanied minor service is perfect for busy parents and other situations, Arlene should have traveled with her son if she was going to worry so much. She would have avoided worrying so much.
Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.
If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a woman who adopted a boy she found on the side of the road, and his father showed up years later.
This account is inspired by our reader’s story and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life.
5 Unforgettable Tales of the Worst Bridezillas
What makes a bride turn into a bridezilla? Is it the nervousness and anxious thoughts that make brides lose their cool, or do they get angry because of other things?
Every woman wants her wedding day to be perfect, but when that stress gets intense, the brides either flip out or, let’s be real, their true colors start to show. Here are stories from five folks on Reddit who’ve witnessed some of the most jaw-dropping bridezilla moments.
Comments have been edited for clarity and grammar.
1. My Best Friend’s Wedding
u/ajlawford: I had a silent bridezilla. She was my best friend of 15 years and didn’t ask for much during the wedding planning as there were only two months between the engagement and the wedding day.
There was no bachelorette party, dress shopping, gift exchanges, or in-person meetups. We lived two hours away, but she didn’t want my input.
A woman talking to another woman | Source: Shutterstock
She wanted me to buy a dress, look pretty, and attend her wedding. I thought, “OK, whatever you want. You’re my best friend, and I’m excited you are getting married.”
She didn’t even let me help with her hair and makeup on the wedding day. Instead, she just asked me to focus on my hair and makeup. She didn’t trust me to do it well enough because I had short hair. Okay, fine. It’s your day, whatever.
Everything went well until the bride got her sister to call me. During the two-hour-long call, the bride’s sister criticized my every move throughout the wedding, saying that I should never have accepted to be a bridesmaid if I didn’t want to participate.
She also reviewed my Facebook profile to note what I had spent my money on (for example, I posted about joining a bowling league for fun). She said I should have spent that money on the wedding.
An angry woman talking on her phone | Source: Shutterstock
The wedding was two days after Christmas, and her family didn’t even celebrate Christmas that year because of the wedding.
Meanwhile, I was criticized for not spending more time with her, even though I traveled three hours by train the day after Christmas to hang with her the night before her wedding.
Apparently, I should have stayed the night of the wedding to hang with the other two bridesmaids, but I opted to drive home with my boyfriend as I needed to work.
Initially, the bride said she would pay for my makeup on the wedding day, but she changed her mind two weeks before the event.
She asked me to drive for two hours and buy an expensive makeup brand. Despite knowing I was broke after Christmas shopping, I accepted her wish and purchased the makeup. However, she still thought I had an attitude about this.
Two women arguing | Source: Shutterstock
I was also criticized for not giving a gift, although the bride said, “Being a bridesmaid was gift enough.”
After these events, the bride stopped talking to me and blocked me on Facebook. After months of being mistreated, I finally cut my best friend and her sister out of my life.
The last time I saw either of them was the wedding day, which was five years ago. I never even got to see the wedding photos. It’s so sad to see long-term friendships ending over nothing.
She should have told me about her expectations instead of expecting me to guess them and then judge me for not meeting her demands. She also should have talked to me directly instead of involving her sister.
2. She Was Mean as Hell
u/sojadedblond: A friend took out a $7500 loan for her wedding. Okay, that was not too bad. It was workable and sounded pretty reasonable. Then, she asked her fiancé to take out a $25,000 loan. (She forced him by saying she’d leave him if he didn’t.)
A woman arguing with a man | Source: Shutterstock
He had much better credit and got the loan. Then, my friend begged his parents to pay for their honeymoon while they had no idea she had asked their son to take out a loan.
They thought her parents were paying for a modest outside wedding at a local garden, and she repeatedly lied to them until a few weeks before the wedding. She kept threatening to leave her fiancé if he didn’t do things as she wanted them done.
Anyway, his parents were so happy to pay for a cruise (a nice Alaskan cruise) for their honeymoon, but that wasn’t enough for her.
She then lied to her parents, saying that his parents were only giving them $250 for the honeymoon. Her parents were shocked as they were paying for the wedding and reception and thought the groom’s family would at least pay for some of the honeymoon.
Two champagne glasses | Source: Unsplash
They encouraged her to get a better job (she worked 20 hours a week as a receptionist at a nail salon) or to at least go full-time at her current job, but she flat-out refused, saying she had so much to do in planning for the wedding/honeymoon, etc. She was an absolute nightmare.
She and I hadn’t talked since high school (we weren’t very close, more like acquaintances), and she had gotten my number from a mutual friend to call and ask if I’d sing at her wedding.
During that phone call, she told me about everything that happened. She added that she wanted her fiancé to take off two and a half weeks instead of the nine days he’d already taken.
When she asked me what she should do about the honeymoon, I told her she was being a little unreasonable and very demanding with people.
I said it gently and kindly. I wasn’t just like, “Wow, you’re being the worst person ever right now, and your fiancé is really stupid to marry you for a lifetime.”
A woman talking on the phone | Source: Shutterstock
I said, “It seems like you’re putting a lot of pressure on everyone around you to do things your way and only your way. This is Evan’s wedding, too. Maybe ask him what he’d like. Planning this together instead of you alone can be much more fun. You guys will be together for a lifetime, so putting this much stress on everyone, yourself included, just makes things so much harder than they have to be.”
She was quiet for a few seconds, then said, “Uh, okay, I deserve this wedding, and Evan will give me what I want. I don’t want you to sing at the wedding. You’re so mean for telling me I don’t deserve a beautiful wedding!”
When I tried to explain that I thought she could have a gorgeous wedding, just with less stress and anxiety, she said, “You’re just like everyone else. You don’t want me to be happy! My dad keeps telling me to get a better job, and Evan fought to get the loan, and you saying this makes me want to give up!”
After that, she burst into hysterical tears and hung up. It was bizarre. She was like that in high school: very dramatic, mean, and selfish. However, I don’t remember her being that crazy and delusional. They got divorced 14 months after the wedding.
3. The Bridezilla Tried to Scam the Bridesmaids
u/ShamedShamingShamer: Several years ago, a friend asked me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. There were six bridesmaids and one maid of honor (MOH).
Women sitting together | Source: Shutterstock
The bride had picked out her dress already, one for the MOH and one each for the bridesmaids. The dresses were lovely but a bit expensive at $400 each.
Two bridesmaids, including me, were still in college, and the rest had graduated. Since I was still studying, my budget was super tight.
Once the bride picked the dresses for us, she asked the MOH to coordinate with us for the fittings. The MOH told us she would pay for our dresses using her credit card because she wanted Air Miles. She asked us to pay her directly and said we could repay her in installments if needed (I definitely needed to). We all agreed.
All the bridesmaids picked their dresses together, but I couldn’t join them because of my exams. As a result, I decided to go myself the following week.
The MOH said she would pay for mine on the group trip but to call her if there were any issues with the dress. She said she would handle it.
Wedding dresses hanging in a shop | Source: Pexels
When I tried the dress at the shop, it looked perfect, and I was happy. The shop owner went to attend to another client while I was changing back into my clothes, but she confirmed that we were all set.
As I was walking out of the door, a shop employee yelled, “Hey! That will be $200!” I was stunned and totally mortified. I apologized and explained how I thought the MOH had paid for it the weekend before.
The shop owner immediately rushed towards us, diffusing the situation by confirming that the MOH had already paid for the dress. When I turned to leave the store, I realized the shop owner had said $200 and not $400.
Long story short, the dress was only for $200. When I confronted the MOH about it, she spilled the beans.
A shocked woman | Source: Shutterstock
Apparently, the bride and MOH plotted together to charge us double to help pay for the bride’s dress. I let the rest of the bridesmaids know, and four of us dropped out of the wedding immediately.
4. The Last-Minute Floral Fiasco
u/Haceldama: I am a florist, and we once had a bridezilla visit our shop. The bride came with her mother at 9 a.m.
They wanted to order a bridal bouquet, a mother-of-the-bride Cattleya orchid corsage, a boutonniere for the groom, and six smaller ones for the groomsmen.
The wedding was scheduled for noon, and they gave us only three hours to fulfill their order. They wanted everything ready by the time they were done with their makeup appointment at the beauty parlor a few doors down.
A flower shop | Source: Pexels
The bride was flipping through the FTD sample book and pointing out the style and flowers she wanted. She wanted to order garden roses with long sweeping trails of stephanotis and variegated ivy, all three of which would require at least a week’s advanced order with our suppliers.
The bride was shocked when we told her we didn’t always carry extremely expensive and highly perishable flowers. My boss told them that since they didn’t place an order beforehand, they would be limited to what we had in stock and simple styles that could be assembled quickly.
The bride and her mom kept pointing at the book and arguing that we should have those specific flowers in stock. My boss eventually took the book off the desk and tossed it behind the counter.
The bride vacillated between tears and petulant whining that we would ruin her big day. My boss, who disliked brides in general, told her she had ruined her day by not ordering flowers before her wedding day.
A sad bride sitting in a room | Source: Shutterstock
The mom tried chewing out my boss for lacking customer service skills. My boss told her she was welcome to go down the street to another florist and ask their flower department to make their order with whatever they had in stock.
The mom said she’d do just that and reassured the bride that she’d have her flowers done by the time her appointment was over. Both women stormed out.
I figured that was that, but my boss told me and the other girl to start on six simple dendrobium orchid bouts. Meanwhile, she threw together a ribbon-wrapped bridal bouquet with white roses nearly past their prime.
Twenty minutes later, the bride’s mother slunk back in and meekly asked if we could still assemble what they needed. We did. We also charged her a huge rush fee.
5. The Bridezilla Meets Karma
u/[deleted]: My friend called me one day and asked me to be her maid of honor. At first, I was thrilled. But then things took a bizarre turn.
Two women smiling at each other | Source: Pexels
She started oddly, asking me to dye my hair blonde, then demanded $1000 for her bachelorette. I was shocked but things worsened when she insisted I lose 10 pounds. I was taken aback by her demand.
Fuming, I thought about teaching her a lesson. But before I could do anything, karma intervened.
A week after our heated conversation, just a day before her wedding, she called me in a panic. “WHAT DID YOU DO??? I just got a call from my bank!” she said.
It turned out that her bank had frozen her account due to suspicious activity. In her pre-wedding frenzy, she had made so many extravagant purchases that the bank suspected fraud.
A bride screaming at her phone | Source: Shutterstock
One of my exes had his account frozen once and she needed advice as to what I’d done to help my ex-boyfriend. I worked as a banker back then. I refused to help her and hung up.
Have you ever seen a bride throw tantrums and get too demanding with her family and friends? Share your experience with us in the comments section.
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