Billy Crawford and his second son Austin: The Longest Flight, the Greatest Arrival

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n paper, Billy Crawford’s recent trip home from France should have been routine, another long-haul flight, another stretch of hours between airports.

But as he told me when he sat down for GMA Integrated News Interviews alongside Julie Anne San Jose, Zack Tabudlo, and Miguel and Paolo Guico of Ben & Ben, this one was different. It was the longest flight of his life.

While Billy was in the air, his wife Coleen Garcia was in labor. Their second child, Austin, was on his way into the world. And Billy, helpless and heartsick, could do nothing but sit strapped to his seat and count the hours.

“Funny, maraming nangyari nung linggong 'yun because I ended up going to France and I had a few obligations na kailangan kong gawin. Actually 'yung return day — naku ilang araw pa yan. At 38 weeks and 4 days bigla na lang si Coleen naging 3cm. Sabi niya 'I'm going into active birth. Nag-boarding ako pagdating ko sa eroplano, text ng pinsan niya, 'ate is in labor na.' I was stressed, I was sick to my stomach, I had food poisoning pa that time. Hindi ko pa alam kung ano ang pakiramdam. I was very sad actually, may screen shot pa nga ako actually nung nanganak na siya medyo blurry. Umiiyak ako and they just kept on cutting off. I had to wait nine a half hours until I got here," Billy rambled.

He remembers the helplessness in vivid detail: Tears caught mid-flight, the sick churn in his stomach, the torment of being far away when life was happening without him.

For a man who has stood on some of the biggest stages in the world, nothing could compare to the agony of being an ocean away when his son arrived.

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nd yet, what happened to Coleen was not just another delivery.

“It’s such a miracle baby. Ang tawag is en caul birth which means, he was born in the sac pa, nasa tubig pa rin siya. So parang itlog siya na nalaglag kay Coleen. 'Yung mommy ni Coleen — it was Austin's grandma who was the one na sumalo kasi the doctor wasn’t there, may nurse lang na pine-prepare yung birthing niya," Billy continued, explaining it was supposed to be a water birth.

"Hindi na siya umabot sa tubig. As in nanganak na lang siya in less than two minutes. So it wasn’t so, so hard for my wife pero saludo ako sa kanya. I’ve never seen anybody stronger in my life.”

Austin was born in a rare en caul birth, still inside the sac that had carried him for nine months. Coleen gave birth in under two minutes, with her own mother catching the baby before the doctor could even arrive. A birth story that felt like something out of myth, equal parts raw and miraculous.

What was planned as a water birth turned into something extraordinary and when Billy finally landed in Manila and held his son, everything else fell away.

"I

t was a different feeling kasi nung si Amari nung pinanganak four and a half years ago, malaki si Amari eh. And this boy, nung hinawakan ko I could hold him in one hand. And it was so surreal na may pangalawang anak na ako, kami ni Coleen. And just to see my wife go through it again and all the sacrifices that she has been making, I think I’m in heaven already.”

What he felt in that moment was more than relief. It was the weight of a father’s love stretching to meet the needs of a growing family. From the birth of Amari four years ago to the fragile arrival of Austin now, Billy knows his life is no longer measured in flights or miles, but in the bond he is building with Coleen and their children.

The flight was long. The wait was painful. But the arrival, Billy says, was worth everything. — LA, GMA Integrated News