ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — Lawryn Fellwock said she feels like the luckiest bride on Earth after a stranger she and her husband met on a Delta flight to Puerto Rico helped save their honeymoon.
Lawryn and her husband, Joe Fellwock, had just exchanged vows in a small wedding ceremony in Ann Arbor and they were looking forward to spending their honeymoon on a cruise through the Caribbean islands.
The happy couple posted photos toInstagram, showing them arriving at Detroit Metro Airport where they were set to take a flight to San Juan and then board a ship the next day.
But before the flight took off, Lawryn delivered a shocker.
"My wife looked at me and said, 'Oh, blank! I don't have my passport,'" recalled Joe.
Lawryn forgot her passport at home. "A lot of devastation, for sure," she said because passports were required for the cruise and there was no time to return home to retrieve it.
The couple boarded the flight and tried to figure out a way to get the forgotten passport delivered to San Juan overnight.
"I would say about halfway through the flight, we realized nothing we could come up with was going to work so I just kind of threw a Hail Mary," Joe said.
And that long shot would involve a perfect stranger named Dusty Dills.
Dusty was one of the flight attendants and Joe decided to ask him if he could help them figure out a way to get Lawryn's passport to them in Puerto Rico by the next day.
Thankfully, Dusty was able to devise a plan that would involve Joe's sister, Jackie Fellwock, and a team of his colleagues at Delta.
The plan started with Jackie retrieving the passport and rushing it to Detroit Metro Airport and handing it to Dusty after he landed back in Detroit on a return trip that night.
The next day, on Dusty's flight to Atlanta, he handed the passport to a colleague and the mission was on to get it to Lawryn in Puerto Rico before the ship sailed without them.
According to Delta, "Dusty handed off the passport to Atlanta-based flight attendant Jeff Mendez, who delivered the passport to customer service agent Juan Arroyo at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico."
Once Lawryn had her passport in hand, she and Joe hurried to take an Uber to the ship and they boarded with just a little over an hour to spare.
"I consider that the greatest wedding gift we could have asked for," Lawryn told 7 Action News.
Filled with so much gratitude, the Fellwocks have invited Dusty and another Delta employee who was instrumental in getting the passport to Lawryn, to their wedding reception which is scheduled for next month.
"So many things could have gone wrong and everything went right," said Joe. "And having Dusty do all that for us really kind of instilled faith in me that there are still good people out there."
In a video, courtesy of Delta, Dusty said, "This was so much larger than me," crediting the teamwork of various divisions at the airline.
Lawryn said they are eager to introduce Dusty to their family and friends, many who followed the drama as it unfolded onJoe's Instagram.
"I'm so excited," said Lawryn. "I hope we stay friends for much longer after this."
