gringito,

My sister exhibited no signs of child abuse. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Unless you call crying out of the ordinary.

You mentioned that in your 40yrs of traveling that you've rarely run across crying children in an aiport; that is hard to believe. I see them not only in airports but in malls and other public places a lot.

I gave her a hug before they walked up to the counter. She started to cry, for the most part silently and just kept wiping her eyes. After I left they checked their luggage and went through the TSA line and that's where they were stopped and pulled aside.

I grew up as a military brat and that meant a lot of summer trips home and then leaving the whole family to come back to wherever we were stationed. That led to a lot of tears on my part until I was about 12. I hated leaving my family. There's nothing wrong with that.