A stranger stood up for a mother who was body shamed by a man sitting next to her on a United Airlines flight last month.
Savannah Phillips was flying from Oklahoma to Chicago and observed the man sitting next to her say she was "a smelly fatty" in a text message.
"I don't even know what the rest of his text said. I turned my head away as fast as I could. I was shocked and it was like confirmation of the negative things I think about myself on a daily basis."
Phillips said in a Facebook post that her seat mate was in his 60's and claimed to be a comedian.
"His phone was maybe 12 inches from my face," Phillips wrote, "and he proceeded to text someone that he was sitting next to 'a smelly fatty.'"
As "salty tears" ran down her face, the pilot announced there would be a 30-minute delay, essentially trapping Phillips next to the man who was trashing her appearance via text.
What happened next serves as a small beacon of hope for humanity, Chase Irwin, a restaurant and bar owner from Nashville, noticed what was going on, and confronted the "comedian."
"All of a sudden, someone from behind taps on the guy's shoulder and says, 'Hey, I need to talk to you.'
The guy next to me takes out his headphones."
It was then that Irwin demanded that he switch seats with the fat shamer.
"Someone behind us says, 'We're switching seats. Now.'
The guy next to me said 'OK - why?'
And I hear someone saying,'You are texting about her. And I'm not putting up with that.'"
Phillips said that Irwin's kindness reminded her that "there are more good people in the world than bad."
"When I saw her crying it really hit me hard," Irwin told a local news station. "I actually got really sick to my stomach."
Phillips received an outpouring of support on Facebook.
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