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Father takes six flights to spend Christmas with flight attendant daughter

Hal flew across the United States to spend time with daughter Pierce

News Desk December 28, 2018

Hal Vaughan pinning wings on his daughter Pierce this year after she graduated from the training program to become a flight attendant.

Unable to bear the thought of his youngest child spending Christmas alone, a 65-year-old American dad crisscrossed across the United States at 30,000 feet above sea level, to celebrate the holidays.

Hal Vaughan regretted missing out spending time with his flight attendant daughter, Pierce Vaughan, as he was recovering from a broken neck after falling off a ladder in June.

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Come Christmas holidays, he booked six flights in three days which his daughter was operating on.

Enroute Detroit, Hal shared the story with Mike Levy, a passenger, who posted it on Facebook.

“I had the pleasure of sitting next to Hal on my flight back home. His daughter Pierce was our flight attendant who had to work over Christmas. Hal decided he would spend the holiday with her. So, he is flying on each of her flights today and tomorrow around the country to spend time with his daughter for Christmas. What a fantastic father! Wish you both a very Merry Christmas!” he wrote.

The post has since gone viral with over 38, 000 shares.

[fbpost link="https://www.facebook.com/mlevy1987/posts/10156591221935225?__tn__=-R"]

Speaking to The New York Times, Pierce said it felt surreal to see herself on Facebook feed.

“Long story short, I had missed a lot of time with Pierce this summer,” he said, a day after arriving home in Mississippi. “I just felt terrible thinking about her spending her first Christmas alone, even though she’s 25.”

“We had a great time, we really did.”

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“The odds that he got on six separate flights are amazing,” said Pierce. She added that her father’s decision to spend the holidays with her meant ‘everything’.

Her mother, however, did stay home and it was the first time her parents spent Christmas apart. “Christmas is obviously huge for us. For my mom to sacrifice that for him to be with me was indescribable.”

“We just like spending time together,” added Hal.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Delta Air Lines said the company loved “seeing this awesome dad having the chance to spend Christmas with his daughter — even while crisscrossing the country at 30,000 feet.”