(CNN) — It experienced been seven times since she landed in New York Town, and Hana Sofia Lopes’ luggage was nonetheless missing.
Just about every early morning Hana Sofia phoned the airline for updates and finished the phone progressively discouraged, and even now baggage-much less.
Hana Sofia, a Luxembourg-born actor of Portuguese descent in her early 30s, was stopping off in New York Metropolis in October 2022 to capture up with a mate. Her conclusion issue was Canada, where she was commencing creation on a movie.
On arrival in Montreal, Hana Sofia was due to attend a prestigious field function, the place she’d rub shoulders with film legends and Luxembourg’s primary minister, Xavier Bettel. Her very carefully prepared outfit seemingly missing without end, Hana Sofia bought a last-minute dress in New York and boarded the flight to Canada.
Right after landing in Montreal, Hana Sofia headed straight to the airline details desk to elevate her baggage criticism in man or woman.
“I was really thinking to myself, ‘You know, I am likely to explode,'” she recollects. “But on the other hand, I’m a yogi far too, so I also believe that in karma.”
Hana Sofia understood her misplaced luggage — mislaid somewhere en route from Europe to the US — was not the fault of an airport employee in Canada. So as she approached the counter, she tempered her anger.
“I just commence by expressing, ‘Listen, what I am about to say is very little individual. It can be seriously just against your enterprise, from the enterprise you might be doing work for,'” remembers Hana Sofia.
As she spoke, Hana Sofia’s disappointment manifested not as anger, but as tears, and she observed herself getting emotional as she poured out the facts.
Hana Sofia spent a 7 days in New York Town without the need of her baggage.
Courtesy Hana Sofia Lopes
On the other facet of the airport counter was Azalia Claudine Becerril Angulo, a aspect time airport employee in her mid-20s who’s lived in Montreal all her life.
Azalia listened to the story, and identified herself imagining how she would sense if she ended up the crying stranger.
“She was actually unhappy, offended also, and I recognized why,” Azalia tells CNN Vacation.
“I wished to aid her. Normally, persons are impolite and they’re quite intense. She was distinctive.”
Azalia looked up the lost baggage reference range but it was not good information — the monitor explained the bag was in Frankfurt, Germany.
Listening to this, Hana Sofia deflated.
“I’m listed here to shoot a motion picture, and tomorrow, there is a reception with the primary minister of Luxembourg, which is my property state,” she stated. “I don’t even have make-up to place on my confront. I never even have confront product. I have nothing at all.”
Azalia turned back from the personal computer.
“Wait around, do you have to have makeup? I’m a make-up artist, I can do your makeup for you,” she made available.
Hana Sofia was absolutely taken aback, but Azalia carried on, conveying when she was not doing work at the airport, she was a qualified makeup artist.
“If you want, I can occur to your lodge in the afternoon and do your hair and makeup so that you can show up at your reception,” she explained. “If I was in your area, I would be also freaking out. So I actually want to do it for free of charge.”
Both bemused and touched, Hana Sofia agreed and the two women exchanged figures.
Azalia suggests she didn’t have any reservations about aiding Hana Sofia.
“I actually dependable her,” she states. “It’s truly about her vibe and the link we had.”
Hana Sofia felt the exact way.
“I sensed in the way that she was conversing and also the way that she was behaving that she was truly, truly sincere,” she suggests of Azalia.
Forming a connection
This is Azalia in Hana Sofia’s lodge room with her make-up kit.
Courtesy Hana Sofia Lopes
The subsequent day Azalia arrived at Hana Sofia’s hotel, and as Azalia got to perform, the two women beginning chatting about their lives.
Hana Sofia talked about how she felt both equally nervous and thrilled about the reception that night, while Azalia spoke about what it truly is like splitting her time involving the airport and her make-up vocation.
They toggled among French, English and Spanish — both gals are fluent in many languages.
“Though she was performing the make-up, it was extremely normal,” claims Hana Sofia. “It didn’t sense like I was just assembly someone for the first time. It felt like I was assembly up with an old pal, which is insane, since I just achieved her the day in advance of, but we ended up speaking a whole lot.”
As an actor, Hana Sofia spends a great deal of time in the make-up chair. She is aware what she likes and what she won’t, but she completely cherished the appear Azalia put collectively.
“She did a excellent, fantastic task,” she states.
Hana Sofia’s only hesitation was Azalia’s insistence on performing the services for absolutely free. But Azalia was resolute.
“Makeup for me, it is an artwork, it’s genuinely a passion,” states Azalia. “So it is not about the money. It can be just due to the fact I really like to make the human being truly feel superior and pleased.”
To best it off, that same day, Hana Sofia read from the airline. Her missing bag wasn’t in Frankfurt just after all. It had been tracked down and was on its way to her Montreal lodge.
At that moment, Hana Sofia states she felt like Azalia was a actual fairy godmother.
“She’s not only a excellent human, she’s also really superior at her work simply because she managed to uncover my luggage,” claims Hana Sofia.
A close friend in Montreal
Reduce to the present working day and Hana Sofia is again in Europe for the holiday seasons. She will return to Montreal to film in the new yr, when she strategies to fulfill up with Azalia for dinner and beverages.
The two gals have saved in contact and information back again and forth often.
“She has a mate in Montreal,” states Azalia of Hana Sofia. “Everything that she needs, I am likely to be there.”
Equally women of all ages say their not likely connection illustrates the relevance of openness and empathy, particularly at the airport, in which people today are generally pressured and laser-centered on their possess journey.
“Folks have to be a minimal little bit extra understanding that the person in entrance of them, they don’t have regulate of what transpired,” claims Azalia. “So if they are affected person and seriously calm about it, the individual in front is likely to enable you the greatest that we can.”
“It can be not about make-up. Of program, if I did not have makeup, it’s not the stop of the planet,” claims Hana Sofia.
“It is significantly much more about how little we do these kind of matters. We never cease genuinely normally to consider about how the other man or woman could possibly be emotion or how the other human being may possibly be going through a little something. We just do our individual matter and we never treatment, however, that’s how it goes. And in her condition, she actually didn’t do that. And which is what is incredible.”
Top rated picture: Hana Sofia Lopes, entrance, pictured after Azalia Claudine Becerril Angulo, back again, did her makeup in Montreal. Credit history: Hana Sofia Lopes
