Story time: What's the weirdest situation that's happened to you on a plane?

My best friends story, he told me this story while I was working the bbq grill holding a cold brew in my hand:

I sat next to a mail order bride on her way back home to Ukraine for the first time since she's was married 5 years earlier. She was flying alone with a heavy heart.

For the first half of the flight I simply thought I was sitting next to a young cute college girl, but after we got our food on a long flight to Amsterdam we had a brief chat where we introduced ourselves. It was then I asked her the usual... "work or pleasure?" where she went into her backstory.

Her story started out explaining the conditions of pre Soviet conditions in Ukraine and how difficult life really was after the break up of the Soviet Union. She had it better in communism as they never went hungry and they had the healthcare and jobs. Afterwards she and her family were quite destitute with lack of work and struggled for food. Ultimately she described how it was really everyone in her small village that were really feeling like they didn't have much of a future. She seemed really smart to me and definitely beautiful more or less like a model.

She went on to explain how she dreamed of life in America and going to college in the West. She came across a program that many girls in her city were apart of. It came across to her as an opportunity to meet guys from the West. After saving up for the program she made it to what was I pictured as a convention of hundreds of girls who would be screened, interviewed and ultimately those chosen would meet the guy that would select you. This was the real world bachelor, but not dozen girls, but hundreds. She said she was lucky because she said she did meet her mom and she met her briefly, but it was all very quick. She basically got processed and was sent all alone to America in no time to be married. The company handled the processing, visas, certificates, and licenses.

Her bright future of college and opportunity in the West closed down fast when she found herself married to a guy who loved TV and microwaved meals. He doesn't like to travel, doesn't appreciate culture, doesn't really even like leaving the house. He's extremely shy and introverted. He's a computer nerd that lives in Redmond Washington.

While she realized she made a huge mistake in her quiet nerdy partner, she also has had her needs met in most cases, but planned to catch up with her family and decide what to do next. She feels bad for him, but doesn't also feel much of a bright future. She was hopeful things would work out.

After our 6 hour conversation and parting hug, I felt like we had an amazing kinship. It was hard to part ways after we arrived. I really felt for her, but was also worried about what advice to give her. We exchanged contact info, but was worried about getting too involved.

Incredible person. Amazing stories of politics and love. I hope she's living a life she's happy with. Hope her the best!