We all have dreams as kids, dreams that some get to fulfill as they grow older but many could only wish would happen someday.
Last week, a pilot working for Philippine Airlines (PAL) finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of flying his parents home for Christmas.
Juan Paulo Fermin shared a video on Facebook which would soon go viral, touching hearts around the world. In the post, he narrated how he has not spent a Christmas together with his overseas Filipino worker (OFW) parents for 16 years; though he would later reveal he miscounted as it was actually 17 years.
Photo credit: Juan Paulo Fermin / Facebook
His mom Pureza and stepdad Gregory have lived and worked in Bermuda back when he was still 8 years old. While he was born in Tuguegarao and had spent his first years there, he had to move to Cagayan de Oro to live with his grandmother when his parents went to Bermuda.
He got the job on PAL last March. This would give him the chance to finally fulfill his lifelong dream. When he knew his parents’ flight details, he began to plan out the surprise.
His parents would fly from Bermuda to New York, then to Vancouver before heading for Manila. He learned that a friend was part of his parents’ flight crew from Vancouver to Manila and was soon able to make arrangements with his superiors to let him be the pilot to fly them home.
But he kept the whole-year long plan a secret from his parents.
As his parents took the final leg of their flight to the Philippines last December 18, they had no idea it was Juan Paulo flying them back home. With the plane high up in the sky, the pilot got out of the cockpit to visit his most precious passengers while carrying a bouquet of roses in his hand.
It was definitely a sweet reunion, something that would go viral on his Facebook page but also on PAL’s official Twitter account.
Watch the heartwarming video here: