Rubin began to panic when the gate agent refused to let him and his newborn on the plane. With limited options and money, he didn’t know what he was going to do until an elderly woman named Joy came into the picture.
Traveling with an infant definitely can be a challenge but dad Rubin Swift never expected to be stopped at the Frontier Airlines gate at the Phoenix airport and be informed that he and his baby girl Ru-Andria couldn’t even board the plane.
Rubin had learned that he had a newborn daughter in Arizona and he was being awarded custody.
The 43-year-old Cleveland, Ohio, dad packed his bags and headed south to rescue his baby and take her home.He visited his daughter for the first time and began bonding with her at Banner University Medical Center. There, he met NICU volunteer Joy Ringhofer, who was 78 at the time.
Baby Ru-Andria had been transferred to the NICU after birth for several days as a precautionary measure.
Recently widowed, Joy recognized that Rubin was a doting father even though he had been thrust into a surprising situation.
He has three grown children from a prior marriage and four step-children with Tiffany, then 32.
For some strange reason, Joy felt compelled to jot down her phone number and give it to Rubin, shocking him.
She even offered to give him a ride to the airport on the day he was scheduled to leave.
Traveling with an infant definitely can be a challenge but dad Rubin Swift never expected to be stopped at the Frontier Airlines gate at the Phoenix airport and be informed that he and his baby girl Ru-Andria couldn’t even board the plane.
It turned out that Ru-Andria wasn’t able to fly with Rubin because he needed to have proof of her age. Frontier Airlines’ policy is that an infant must be at least seven days old to fly.
But it would take up to a week to get the proper documentation!
When Rubin ran into the huge barrier at the airport, he had no idea what to do. He toyed with the idea of sleeping on the floor of the airport for days, waiting until he could pick up her birth certificate.
“I was out of money and the hospital told me that I wouldn’t be able to get a birth certificate for seven days. I was worried that if security saw me sleeping at the airport with a newborn, they’d take her away from me and charge me with neglect. I was stuck.”