A Girl Boards a Plane With a Stranger And 15 Years Later, She is Met With Surprise

As a mother, Zainab Sesay wanted what was best for her daughter, Maya Hughes. She wanted her to have a connection to her background and her heritage. So, she took her to Sierra Leone, which is where she was born. But an emergency forced her to send her daughter back to the U.S. immediately.

Fifteen years later, the loving mom was finally able to track down the kind stranger who accompanied her daughter on her plane ride home. But why did she go through all that trouble?

She Felt Connected to Her Homeland

Zainab Sesay was born in Sierra Leone, but moved to the United States when she was 11 years old. But she always felt a strong connection to the country she left behind all those years ago. Then one day, she realized she couldn’t ignore the urge to return to her homeland any longer.

The only problem was, things wouldn’t go the way she expected when she brought her daughter on the trip with her.

She Had a Good Life in the States

In 2003, Sesay decided to return to Sierra Leone, but leaving behind her life in the United States wasn’t easy. She had tons of friends, an amazing career, and most importantly, a family. She was working at Northrop Grumman at the time and considered it the best job she ever had.

But she was ready to give it all up… or so she thought.

She Wanted to See Her Grandmother Again

“It was a very daring move, to say the least,” Sesay told VOA. She wanted to go back home for plenty of reasons. Most importantly, she wanted to reunite with her grandmother, and she wanted her 5-year-old daughter, Maya Hughes, to meet her too.

“The trip was solely to take her back to learn of my heritage and my background,” she explained. At that moment, Sesay wasn’t sure if they’d ever return back to the United States. But things soon changed in the blink of an eye.

They Had No Plans to Return

Sesay and her daughter finally got on a plane and left their old lives behind. They had no plans to return to the U.S., but things didn’t go as planned after they arrived at Sierra Leone.

For starters, the transition was harder than she had expected, as everything she knew about her home had changed.