Janet was my close friend since we were 15 years old. She was stunningly beautiful, incredibly artistic and talented, competent, very focused at such a young age. And as her friend I had the good fortune to watch her grow into a strong, intelligent, and independent woman. She was a good mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend. She was like a sister to me, I could tell her anything in confidence, and she me.
Our first “real” job was with Braniff Airways as Flight Attendants, we were just 19 years old. After training, we were initially based in Dallas, Texas, we were on reserve waiting for our first flight assignments. Back then we had pagers, and because we were in the same class and only a month apart in age, we were right next to each other in seniority. We excitedly waited for our pagers to go off, it didn’t, so we decided to go for a drive. I got the page first, we screamed with excitement, stopped at a pay phone, and Crew Scheduling told me I was going to Corpus Christi some other city in Texas, I don’t really remember. As we started to drive away, Janet’s pager goes off, we scream again, and she was told she had been assigned a flight to London. Well of course I was disappointed, but Janet said, call them back and ask them if you can go to London too. Well, we were too green to know that you’re not suppose to do that, but I did, at Janet’s urging, and do you know the Crew Scheduler, put me in hold, came back on the line and said, okay, we’re going to send you to London too. So our first trip assignment was not only together, but to London of all places, and we had a blast!
I can’t believe she’s no longer here, I’m heart is broken, but I’m thankful she is no longer in pain. And I’m thankful that I have a million little memories of Janet that will make me smile and realize how lucky I am to have had such a friend in my life.
Rest now my friend, I love you.