The Wind Beneath My Wings - Part Three
After a disastrous end to my flying job with Effingham Air, I ended up back in my hometown of Sumner, Illinois in the spring of 1986 working at our family’s hardware and appliance store. I wasn’t happy. I was lost. Then, the movie Top Gun came out. Kind of a sloppy plot, but there were some flying scenes that got my blood pumping again. I decided to get back into the cockpit.
Barely a year after going to the store, I found myself flying for Propheter Aviation in Sterling, Illinois. My boss, our director of operations, was an odd duck. I had heard of compulsive liars before, but until I met him I did not truly comprehend what that really meant. This was a man incapable of telling the truth. Even when there was no reason to lie, he would lie.
The final straw came for me when they pencil-whipped an engine change on one of our planes. The engine was due for overhaul or replacement, and they even had the replacement engine sitting in a crate in the hangar. Yet, when a charter trip was called in, our D.O. elected to have the mechanic sign off the engine change as if had actually been accomplished so he could fly the airplane. That did it for me. I applied to ComAir, and was hired.
That definitely would not have happened without Marsha. The day before the interview, I developed a migraine headache, and I was incapable of driving from Sterling, Illinois to Covington, Kentucky. With Angi in the car seat in back, and me trying to sleep off the headache in the front passenger seat, Marsha drove through the night. We checked in really late at a hotel near the Greater Cincinnati – Northern Kentucky airport and I napped a couple hours before showering and going to the interview.
I told a couple of my friends at Propheter I was going to Comair, and then I told the D.O. I would be leaving. He told me not to say anything to anyone. I did not tell him that I already had. The D.O. then, for reasons known only to him, told the other pilots that I had been hired by Delta. Apparently, he didn’t want to admit that I left to go to a commuter airline. Like it made any difference. All he accomplished was exposing himself once again for the liar he was, because the others knew he was telling them a bald-faced lie. My thoughts were “Good riddance to bad rubbish” with regard to him.
After slightly less than two years and only one emergency at Comair, I was hired by Airborne Express in Wilmington, Ohio in March of 1989. For once, this job change did not require us to move. I could sit at home in Erlanger, Kentucky on reserve and be within the required two-hour response time.
I began Basic Indoctrination training March 31st, 1989. Basic Indoc lasted one week and its purpose was to familiarize us with company policies and procedures, Operations Specifications, etc. At the end of the week, we were administered a written test for which we were well-prepared. The following week, I began training to be a YS11 First Officer, commonly referred to as the copilot.
Marsha had to be growing weary of all the moves by now, but to her credit she didn’t complain.
I stayed at ABX for 21 years, taking an early retirement at age 56 in March 2010. During that time I flew as First Officer on the YS-11 and DC9; Captain on the YS-11; DC9; and for the last ten years, the Boeing 767. I saw all of the USA and much of the rest of the world. It wasn’t perfect – nothing is – but it was a good job that paid well and my schedule allowed us to do a lot together as a family.
We had many experiences during the 21 years I worked for Airborne/ABX Air. Some of the experiences were good. Some were not. Choosing to remember the good:
We watched as Angi grew from a small baby to a young woman; we had several good pets – dogs, cats, and horses on our farm in Indiana.
We took some great vacations – Disney World when Angi was small (I even survived being shot by the Pirates of the Caribbean!); the American West; Banff National Park, where we rode horses in the Canadian Rockies; New Zealand; Australia.
We had some good times with our horses and the friends that came along with having them – horse shows; trail rides; campouts; 4H meetings; the Old Fort Futurity Days World’s Richest Barrel Race; foals born on the farm.
Marsha was one of the “4H moms” who was always available to help kids grooming their horses, braiding manes, etc. for the horse shows. She would take part in the shaving cream fights they’d have in the barn at night. The kids all loved her.
Out at the farm we would host hot dog roasts; enjoy star gazing; the smell of newly-mown hay. And lots more. I’m thankful for it all.
The summer of 2007 was a busy time for us. I tested successfully in Indiana for my second-degree black belt in June, and we moved to Florida. Giving up our farm, the dogs and the horses was a hard but necessary thing. It was especially hard for Marsha. But, she did it. For her family. In July, I traveled to Japan and flew trips from there to China and Thailand. And then, in August, our first grandchild, Annika Marie Grace Baker, came into our lives and immediately won our hearts.
The move to Florida was something that needed to happen, and it benefited us. We became a stronger family because we stood as one and pulled together with all of us holding the same end of the rope.
Marsha continued working in Florida as a preschool teacher. She was very creative and would teach the children how to make pretend binoculars from the cardboard tubes of two toilet paper rolls, or a spy glass from the tube of a roll of paper towels, things like that. The kids loved her.
Marsha was a beautiful soul. She enjoyed walking and would always make a point of finding at least one beautiful thing every day.
We bought a pontoon boat and cruised the lakes in Florida in the winters, then took it to Illinois during summer months when we would stay in our camper on East Fork Lake near Olney, Illinois.
She began having headaches. Her doctor dismissed them, saying it was stress, or maybe she needed to have her vision checked. He would not refer her to a neurologist, even after the eye doctor recommended it. The headaches got worse. To the point that Marsha had to resign from her job.
Then on her last day at work, a little boy got close to her. She didn’t see him and tripped, hitting her head on a windowsill. Marsha was taken by ambulance to the emergency room. They did X-rays and determined she had a brain tumor. The diagnosis, once she finally was referred to a neurologist, was a condition called craniopharyngioma.
In the months that followed, the tumor grew, pinching off the optical nerve and leaving Marsha blind in her left eye. The headaches got worse and worse. She eventually began losing vision in her right eye. Her only relief from the pain was to sleep, or to go out on the boat, where she would be able to relax – and fall asleep in the gentle rocking of the waves.
Through it all, Marsha still took care of us. Cooking, taking care of our granddaughter, and listening to me read her the stories I was writing. Despite her pain, she still had a beautiful smile.
In a desperate attempt to reclaim a life worth living, Marsha went in for surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida on February 24th, 2010. Our granddaughter Annika and I were with her. We kissed her and said we would see her in a few hours. Then, we waited.
The surgery was completed, the tumor removed. Annika and I were thrilled. I promised Annika she could be the one to tell Grandma the doctors got the tumor when she woke up.
Marsha never did wake up. To describe the days that followed is just too painful, so I won’t. Suffice it to say that on March 5th, Marsha went to Heaven.
I mentioned earlier that I think of the song, “She Believes in Me” when I remember my life with Marsha. Other songs bring tears to my eyes, even now. “You and Me Against the World” by Helen Reddy; “Through the Years” another Kenny Rogers song; and Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey” to name a few.
Marsha took care of virtually everything when I was gone flying or on my adventures, and put up with me when I was at home. She was a wonderful person, a great friend, mother, and grandmother. I cannot possibly express the gratitude I feel for all she did for us. She was, literally, the wind beneath my wings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iAzMRKFX3c&list=RD0iAzMRKFX3c&start_radio=1