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Shortly after taking off a flight from Alaska Airlines from Logan Airport last week, a flight attendant made a request about the announcement system: Did passengers know sign language?
Clara Daly, age 15, pressed the call button.
The attendants explained that they needed his help to communicate with Tim Cook, who was traveling alone after visiting his sister in Boston. But as Cook was both deaf and blind, Daly – who had been studying American Sign Language for a year – had to sign in his hand.
"It was the first time I could use it," Daly told The Globe.
During the six-hour flight between Boston and Portland, Daly went a few times with Cook to see how he was going and ask if he needed anything from the flight attendants. Daly and Cook talked to each other during the last hour of the flight, Daly said.
"He asked me for the names of the people around him," she said. "He asked me what I wanted to do for a career and where I wanted to go to school."
In a recent Facebook article, Lynette Scribner, another passenger, explained what it was like to see Clara using ASL to communicate with Cook. The position has now been shared more than 580,000 times.
"It was fascinating to watch as she signed one letter at a time in her hand," wrote Scribner. "He was able to read his signature and they continued an animated conversation."
Daly said that she had always been "very interested" in sign language and decided to start studying it because she was suffering from dyslexia and that the ASL did not require any writing.
Before the flight, Daly and his mother had spent a little less than a week in Marshfield helping his grandmother move out.
"I grew up in Marshfield, so we have a very strong connection to the Boston area because of that," said Jane Daly. "Although I live in California for most of my life, we go back every summer."
Jane Daly said that she was proud when her daughter volunteered to help Cook.
"I was not at all surprised that Clara gets up because it's kind of who she is," she said.
Daly and his mother initially planned to take a direct flight between Boston and Los Angeles, but it was canceled. They were then put on a steal flight to Portland – the same plane as Cook.
"When we arrived in Portland, that's when Clara said," I think it was supposed to be that our flight was canceled so I could be on that flight for the flight. " "Help," said Jane Daly.
Sophia Eppolito can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @SophiaEppolito.
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