A simple cup of tea and a handwritten note meant so much to one grieving airline passenger that, almost four years later, she decided she had to find the stranger responsible.

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Karoline Kinjorski was travelling with her boyfriend from Seattle to Detroit in 2022 after receiving the sudden news that her father had died.

Understandably overwhelmed, the then-28-year-old had booked a last-minute flight home to be with her family.

Kinjorski remembers little about that day, but one interaction aboard the Delta Air Lines flight stayed with her.

“I don’t remember a lot about that day outside of how I felt, but I do very specifically remember looking for some form of comfort,” she told PEOPLE. “I was like, ‘Do you guys have tea, like chamomile tea?’ ”

Chamomile tea wasn’t normally stocked on the domestic flight.

But around 10 minutes later, flight attendant Melissa Sausaman appeared with exactly that — alongside a handwritten message signed with hearts from four members of the cabin crew.

The note read: “Ms. Kinjorski, we are so sorry to hear about your father. Please let us know if there is ANYTHING we can get you to make today less stressful”

Kinjorski recalled: “I’m almost positive I was composed to say thank you and then started sobbing.”

The tea helped her get some sleep following a restless night, but the gesture stayed with her long after the flight had landed.

“When you’re grieving, everything’s a blur, but you remember people who see you,” she said.

Nearly four years later, Kinjorski picked up the same book she’d taken aboard the flight and discovered the handwritten note tucked inside.

“This is a sign,” she remembered thinking. “This person should know how I feel about them. It’s time to make a video.”

She subsequently shared her story on TikTok and Instagram in August, hoping the internet could help identify the flight attendant.

@bykarolinek

Full story: I was living in Seattle at the time and my family all lives in Michigan so we had to fly home at a moments notice. The kindness actually started before we boarded. The delta agent on the phone was so kind to help us book tickets at 3am for a 9am flight and somehow was able to understand me while I was in shock and probably sobbing. Delta was the first non family call I made that morning because I needed to get home ASAP. Because my boyfriend and I booked our tickets that same day, we weren’t seated together. I asked the gate agent if she could possibly move us because I didn’t want to spend the flight sobbing beside a stranger. Without me asking, she upgraded both of us to first class so he could sit beside me. I still remember her too. Once we were onboard, the flight attendant showed me that same kind of care. I was inconsolable but trying so hard to hold myself together in public. When I asked for chamomile tea and there wasn’t any onboard, she went around asking other passengers and the entire flight crew until she found someone who had brought their own. Then she left me a handwritten note. On the 1 year anniversary of my dad’s death, I took a 30-day trip through Europe to try to figure out how to exist in the world without him. On the flight from Detroit to Edinburgh for that solo trip, I wrote notes explaining what had happened on that original flight and the profound impact that gate agent and flight attendant’s kindness had on me when I was at my absolute lowest. I gave the gate agents and flight attendants gift cards and the letters as a way to pay their kindness forward, and to thank the women I had never been able to properly thank myself. Because something that probably felt very small to her, finding me a tea bag and writing me a note, stayed with me. It changed the way I remember one of the worst days of my life, and it reminded me how much one person’s kindness can matter when someone is barely holding on. Last week, right after booking another trip to Scotland on Delta, I found her note that I thought I had lost. And I keep seeing cardinals everywhere. Maybe grief makes us look for meaning in coincidences. Or maybe I’m finally supposed to find her and tell her that what she did mattered, that I never forgot it, and that her kindness kept moving forward long after that flight. I’m looking for the exact flight information now and will post it in the comments shortly. Please help me find her. 🤍 #flightattendant #DeltaAirlines #HelpMeFind #TikTokSleuths @delta

♬ original sound – Karoline | Style + Beauty + ✈️

As the videos gained attention, people began sharing their own experiences of receiving unexpected kindness while grieving.

But there was still no sign of Sausaman.

Kinjorski eventually began thinking “it’s probably not gonna work.”

Then came the breakthrough.

After connecting with somebody at Delta, Kinjorski finally discovered the woman she’d been searching for — and on September 14, the pair reunited at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.

Sausaman, now 39, couldn’t even remember where she’d found the elusive tea bag all those years ago.

What she did remember was wanting to help without overwhelming a passenger going through unimaginable grief.

Reflecting on their reunion, she said: “A cup of tea is like a cup of tea, but it’s not just a cup of tea.”

“Little moments that don’t take a ton of time convey so much to the other person. Little acts of kindness can really just balloon into something a thousand times the size.”

Featured image credit: @bykarolinek / TikTok