PeeWee's Last Flight

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152340088552220

"PeeWee" was a customer service agent for Southwest Airlines in Orlando Florida.  The video link gives you some idea of how PeeWee's friends and colleagues at Southwest felt about him.  The outpouring of emotion seems as though it might be a unique event.  But I remember something astoundingly similar.

The PeeWee story reminded me of my friend Delilah Williams...what a MENSCH!

Back in the 90s, she and I were flying Houston/Paris on the DC10. Delilah was someone who's very being inspired a smile, often followed by a laugh...and then another, followed by the promise of so many more.

Delilah's promise of more shared laughter died with her when she and her husband were killed in a tragic automobile accident on Interstate 10, returning home to Mobile, AL on a rainy night.  We who knew her were devastated, as you can imagine.  Adding to the tragedy, they left behind two young daughters.  It seems that everyone I knew was determined to attend the funeral services in Mobile but our service then, as now, was just a few, FULL regional jets a day.

Our airline family was much smaller then, we seemed so in touch with one another, so in tune with what we could and should do in most situations.  Our leader at the time was no exception to that.  He was "one of us".

I don't know the mechanics of the situation but what I remember is this:  a 737-500 was authorized to assure that as many colleagues could get to Delilah's family as possible.  And they did.  All in uniform.  It was memorable.

It happened for us then.  It happened at Southwest just this week.

It can, and will, happen again.

(We love and miss terribly our friend and colleague, Delilah Williams.  Peace be with all who knew and loved "PeeWee".)