Happy Birthday Mazzy.
Posted by Brein Bjorson Marzano on Monday, April 13, 2015
A heartwarming video of an impromptu birthday party for a girl with a disability aboard a Southwest Airlines flight is going viral on social media.
Earlier this month, Mike Marzano and his family were passengers on a flight bound for Pennsylvania from Florida, where they had been on vacation. During the flight, Marzano's 7-year-old daughter Birkly notified an airline attendant that it was her sister Mazzy's fourth birthday.
Mazzy, according to her father, has Spina Bifida and is paralyzed from the chest down.
"Birkly is always concerned about Mazzy and wanted to get her a set of wings for her birthday," Marzano told The Huffington Post on Friday. "The stewardess said, 'Oh yeah, we'll have a surprise for her.'"
And surprise the family they did.
Roughly 30 minutes before the plane was to descend for Pittsburgh, the attendant announced over the intercom that a "special guest" was on board and asked the passengers to close their window shades and "please help us sing happy birthday to her."
THE MARZANO FAMILY: (Story Continues Below)
As dozens of passengers serenaded Mazzy, the flight attendant presented the little girl with a cake made of toilet paper, a princess crown crafted from pretzels and a goody bag with items for Mazzy to share with her sister.
"She didn’t know in the beginning till we told her, 'This is for you' and then she looked up and got all excited," Marzano said.
Southwest Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from HuffPost. However, the airline did comment on a video Marzano's wife, Brein Bjorson-Marzano, posted to Facebook of the passengers singing happy birthday to Mazzy.
"This is so wonderful," reads the reply by Southwest. "Lots of smiles around our system for Mazzy!"
Marzano said the event is "a good memory my family won't forget."
As for Mazzy, she considers it the coolest thing to happen "ever in mine whole life."
Related
Before You Go
