New York (Act Daily News) — Ayda Zugay clasps her palms collectively, making an attempt to maintain her nerves in examine.
She’s been ready for at the present time for many years.
At any second the girl she tried to seek out for therefore lengthy will lastly be right here.
It’s been greater than 23 years since a stranger on an airplane gave Zugay and her sister an envelope with $100 in it that might change their lives.
The story reached tens of millions of readers — a lot of whom despatched in suggestions to assist with the search. Several of them noticed the handwriting on the envelope and knew immediately who was behind it: Tracy Peck of Blaine, Minnesota.
Vanja, left, and her sister Ayda shortly after they got here to the US in 1999.
Courtesy Ayda Zugay
It’s a joyful event. But as they look ahead to Peck to reach, Zugay tells her sister that she’s feeling anxious and emotional.
What if the second would not really feel proper? What in the event that they battle to attach with one another? What if the girl who’s impressed her for therefore a few years finally ends up seeing her as a disappointment?
Tears effectively up in her eyes.
“I don’t want to let her down,” she says.
Contino tells her sister that might by no means occur.
“You are an amazing person,” she says. “This is all happening because of you.”
The three ladies share a tearful embrace
Zugay and Contino cover themselves behind a Christmas tree coated with gleaming gold ornaments, hoping to shock Peck when she arrives.
As they wait, the Midtown Manhattan lodge foyer the place they’ve deliberate to fulfill is bustling. Guests toting suitcases and purchasing luggage dart previous them, oblivious to the dramatic second that is about to unfold.
Even although they know she’s coming, Peck catches them abruptly when she lastly seems.
“Hi!” the sisters shout in unison, dashing ahead to wrap their arms round Peck.
“My lovelies!” Peck exclaims.
Tracy Peck and the 2 sisters share a hug within the foyer of their New York lodge. It was the primary time they’d seen one another in individual in 23 years.
Act Daily News
Her face reddens as tears stream down her cheeks. “Oh! This is such a blessing,” she says, they usually maintain one another tighter.
To Peck, the hug seems like an embrace from relations she’s identified for years.
To Contino, it is an incredible connection between the previous and the current that she by no means imagined could be attainable.
To Zugay, it seems like a second of closure, and a second of one thing new that is simply starting.
They have lots to atone for
A couple of minutes later, Zugay and Peck calm down on the sofa in Zugay’s lodge room. Contino sits on a chair close by, snapping images and taking within the scene.
They’ve exchanged some texts and messages on social media since their digital meetup within the spring. When she received engaged a number of months in the past, Zugay texted Peck to inform her.
But there’s a lot extra to atone for, and a lot to share.
The final time these three ladies sat facet by facet, they have been in very completely different locations, though they have been flying to the identical vacation spot.
On May 31, 1999, Peck was in her late 40s and had simply completed a dream trip watching the French Open with buddies.
A youthful Tracy Peck, proper, with tennis star Monica Seles on this snapshot from Peck’s 1999 journey to Paris.
Courtesy Deanne Sand Johnson
Contino, then 17, and Zugay, then practically 12, had simply stated goodbye to their dad and mom and every little thing they knew as they fled their war-torn nation.
Peck was heading house to be along with her household. Zugay and Contino have been heading into uncertainty. They have been in search of refuge within the United States, however had no concept what they’d discover as soon as they arrived.
Zugay did not communicate a lot English then, however she sensed the compassion in her seatmate’s voice.
“We were able to communicate even though we had so many differences,” she says.
After listening to the sisters’ story that day, Peck handed them an envelope on the finish of the flight, telling them to attend till they received off the airplane to open it. Inside she tucked a $100 invoice and the dangly earrings she’d been carrying.
“To the girls from Yugoslavia –” her observe on the surface of the envelope started. “I am so sorry that the bombing of your country has caused your family any problems. I hope your stay in America will be a safe and happy one for you — Welcome to America — please use this to help you here. A friend from the plane — TRACY”.
Tracy Peck wrote this observe on the envelope she handed the sisters on the airplane. It took them twenty years to study her identification.
Courtesy Ayda Zugay
Peck had no concept how a lot that gesture would come to imply to its recipients — and the way a lot writing it could find yourself altering her life, too.
Contino, who’s now 41 and an anesthesiologist in Connecticut, sees the envelope as a purpose why she nonetheless tries to prioritize giving to individuals in want, and why she’s instructing her two daughters to do this, too.
Zugay, a 35-year-old who lives in Boston, sees Peck’s easy act of generosity as the inspiration of many issues in her life, together with her work with quite a few nonprofits and the consulting firm she cofounded.
And now that they are lastly reunited, Zugay needs to ensure Peck is aware of how a lot it is meant.
“I thought of you for so many years,” she says. “It was almost like you were next to me in the things I was doing.”
For the sisters, Tracy’s handwritten observe was a chunk of a puzzle
Zugay unzips a black backpack, pulls out the envelope and palms it to Peck.
It’s in remarkably good situation, with no main wrinkles or tears. Zugay retains it along with her vital paperwork and has tried exhausting to guard it.
“This is so wonderful,” Peck says. “I just can’t believe you kept this all these years.”
Peck says she’s amazed Zugay stored looking out when so many others would have given up.
“Thank you so much for everything, Tracy,” Zugay says. “You’re such a beautiful person. I’m so excited for your joy to radiate across the planet.”
Ayda Zugay holds a customized Christmas decoration Tracy Peck gave to the sisters to commemorate their reunion.
Catherine Shoichet/Act Daily News
Zugay tells Peck she nonetheless remembers having a panic assault as soon as when she thought she’d misplaced the envelope, and the various hours she spent taking a look at it and looking for clues. For so a few years, that piece of paper gave the impression to be the one factor connecting her to a puzzle in her previous she wanted to unravel.
Now that she and Peck have reunited, the envelope itself would not appear as vital. But what it symbolizes appears extra vital than ever. And that, Zugay says, is why she’s decided to maintain telling the story.
“It’s been really beautiful to be able to elevate the message of welcoming people, and encouraging people to be kind,” she says. “You don’t have to be a wealthy philanthropist; you don’t have to be somebody who has a lot of power. You can be an average person, and you can have an incredible impact on somebody’s life.”
Tracy’s act of kindness has touched many others
Since Act Daily News’s protection of her search started, Zugay estimates she’s acquired greater than 2,300 emails from readers who have been moved by Tracy’s story.
Some shared their very own experiences of reaching out to others or receiving sudden help at moments after they felt misplaced.
One individual wrote that they’d been dangerously near suicide however reconsidered after studying about Zugay’s seek for Tracy.
“Something woke up in me that was quiet for so long. … Instead of ending my life that day, I walked around the city feeling gratitude for people like Tracy in my life,” the observe stated. “Now when I think about what I hope to build out of my life, I will always think of you and Tracy.”
A Act Daily News story helped two sisters from the previous Yugoslavia discover the thriller lady who gave them a life-changing present on an airplane 23 years in the past.
Zugay says it has been overwhelming and galvanizing to obtain so many lovely messages.
But whereas most responses have been optimistic, a number of unfavourable emails have additionally made their option to her inbox.
To Zugay, that is vital to acknowledge, too.
“That’s why I do the work I do,” she says. “The goal is for everybody here to feel belonging and welcome and to thrive.”
And irrespective of what number of unfavourable responses she will get, Zugay says discovering Tracy makes all of it worthwhile.
The three ladies go sightseeing in New York
When Peck realized she’d be touring to New York, there was one factor she knew she needed to see with Zugay and Contino: the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
“To me, the whole idea of Christmas is about love and giving and kindness,” Peck says. And who higher to see the tree with than the ladies who’d given her such a good looking reminder of how a small act of kindness can develop into one thing a lot larger?
So after hours of swapping tales about their relations, discussing their lives and careers, and sharing recollections of the previous and desires for the long run, the trio enterprise out to the packed sidewalks of Midtown Manhattan for a glimpse of the long-lasting sight.
The trio snap a selfie Saturday evening at Rockefeller Center in New York.
Catherine Shoichet
At factors, it seems like somebody is shoving them from each route. In the commotion, Zugay and Contino attempt to hold their eyes skilled on Peck’s blonde hair.
“We can’t lose Tracy now,” Contino laughs, “not after we finally found her.”
They marvel on the Saks Fifth Avenue vacation lights show and snap selfies beside the tree.
“So beautiful,” Peck says.
And irrespective of how crowded the sidewalks round them get, the three ladies stick collectively.
Reuniting in individual, Peck says, has introduced much more sudden pleasure than their preliminary dialog.
“Love and friendship among women is to me among the greatest gifts in the world,” she says. “I feel I’ve gained that bond with these two amazing women.”
They get a standing ovation at ‘Act Daily News Heroes’
Waiting backstage the following day as they put together for his or her look on “Act Daily News Heroes,” the ladies marvel on the tales of this 12 months’s honorees.
“There are good people in this world,” Contino says.
Zugay nods in settlement.
Before lengthy, a well-recognized voice echoes within the occasion house as a video performs that features excerpts from their May reunion on Zoom.
It’s Tracy — the Tracy. Hearing her voice makes Zugay really feel immediately emotional. Now they’re collectively eventually.
The viewers offers them a standing ovation as they stroll on stage facet by facet.
Ayda Zugay, Tracy Peck and Vanja Contino, from left, seem onstage in the course of the sixteenth annual “Act Daily News Heroes: An All-Star Tribute” on Sunday on the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Their New York reunion is greater than they ever anticipated
As they return to their New York lodge after the present, they rehash highlights of the evening — the celebrities who stopped them within the hallway to marvel at their story, the various honorees doing extraordinary issues for his or her communities and, better of all, the truth that they received to spend a whole weekend collectively after so a few years aside.
Peck thinks again to the younger ladies she met on the airplane and the way courageous they have been that day.
“I wouldn’t have been nearly as strong as you were. I wouldn’t have been mature enough to do it. … I’m so proud of you, the two women you’ve become,” she says.
Zugay thinks again to her a few years looking for Tracy, and what she hoped she’d discover.
“You turned out to be so much more than I ever expected,” Zugay tells Peck. “Just hearing your voice means so much to me. I can’t wait to hear about our future days together.”
They’re hoping to plan an even bigger reunion so extra members of their households can meet. And subsequent 12 months, Zugay hopes Peck might be a visitor at her marriage ceremony.
Still reveling within the many inspiring tales of the night and the prospect they needed to share the second collectively, Zugay says she feels so overwhelmed with gratitude that she will not have the ability to sleep.
Tonight, she will solely consider one factor to do: write her personal notes, identical to Tracy did, thanking them.