"Sir I cannot give you xanax" is not a sentence I ever thought I'd have to say to a passenger but I guess there's a first for everything.
As soon as we began boarding the plane on this day, a coach passenger on his way in immediately requested two Jack Daniel miniature bottles as I was setting up the first class galley. I replied that as soon as we get up in the air I'd be happy to get him a beverage. Once everyone was seated and we were about to begin our safety demo, the same passenger... again … requested an alcoholic beverage. Did I miss something? Is it happy hour?
After explaining that we cannot have any distractions during the safety demo, we were able to safely complete the demo and before you know it we were at 30,000ft in the air.
Ding ding, you guessed it, Mr Jack Daniels is like a moth to flame for this drink… But now I was finally in a position to get him his request and hopefully calm his clear nerves. He rang, what I have renamed, the “jack daniels bell' a number of times in the next hour. He then approached to tell me, what seemed like was going to be a secret by how close he got to my face …personal space guys, please… and whispered “do you happen to have a xanax I could take?" I surprisingly had to explain, of course, that I cannot give out prescription drugs, “sir I cannot give you xanax”, but I made other legal suggestions. He then told me he was traveling for his father’s funeral and was not taking it very well if I couldn't tell (safe to say, I could). After a comforting conversation and zero consumption of illegal drug use I checked on him regularly for the remainder of the flight. Once we landed, as we deplaned he wanted to speak to me for a moment to tell me how much he appreciated my kindness and for not judging him (which I’ll admit now that I was slightly judging at the initial request asking myself “is this a test?”) He told me that he was very close with his father and this was very sudden and he doesn't know how to handle it.
Although you may have thought this story was going to be me venting about a difficult passenger, it wasn't. This goes to show you never know what personal battle people are struggling with. As a flight attendant especially, we play a lot of different roles, and I'm glad that I could play the role as just a kind human listening to a hurting soul. When I look back, I do find it amusing that the words "sir I cannot give you a xanax" had to come out of my mouth! And to that I must say I look forward to the random future conversations I am sure to have with passengers, I'll be sure to tell you all the stories as they happen!