Ed and Irene were an elderly couple Kate McCallister encountered while trying to get a flight to Dallas from France after realizing that her son Kevin was left home alone.
As the couple prepared to board their flight, Kate offered to Irene two first-class tickets to return home the following Friday, along with a ring, a watch, a pocket translator, and $500. Ed approached Irene and tells her to come because the passengers on the flight were boarding, to which Irene told Ed about the offer Kate had given them. Kate also added her earrings into the offer, to which Ed said that Irene had her own earrings at home and pulled his wife along to the plane.
Kate then begged and told them that she was desperate to get home. Touched by the plea, Ed and Irene decided to take her up on her offer and decided to wait to go home on Friday while Kate took their flight to Dallas, where she hoped to find a flight home to Chicago.