Now, this is not really a long tale, am working on one of those at the moment, however I had a lovely experience over the last couple of days that I would like to share.

I was on a 3 day 8 sector trip, the first 2 sectors, a domestic there and back went surprisingly to plan and we landed back into LHR about 10 minutes early with a jetty and everyone disembarked before our scheduled arrival time. Thumbs up so far!

The next sector was to take us in to our first night stop, somewhere North East of the UK and flipping freezing! We changed from an A320 to an A321, so had an additional crew member join us, so working positions were "All Change" in the briefing. Thankfully, I was not bottom of the seniority list, so managed to snag my favorite position as No.2 sitting at doors 2.

We had several assistance passengers to board, and as No.2, they were my responsibility. The first two were an elderly couple, native of our destination, on the final flight of a RTW, once in a lifetime type trip, however, their english, and my language skills did not extend to much past pleasantries, all settled and happy.

The third lady who boarded was glamor to the nines. Icebergs on almost every finger, draped in gold chains with a fur around her shoulders. In her mid 80's as I found out later, one of our pioneers. Flying for BOAC, starting her career on the Boeing Stratocruiser and the Douglas DC7, flying across the atlantic.

She regaled me stories of Lobster Thermidor and Champagne and white gloves and hats... and this was just in the first 2 minutes of meeting her.
She vowed to tell me more later in the flight, and that was to be true.

Now, the fourth lady to board was of a similar time in life to lady number 3, a plane, gracious, understated lady, wrapped up in a big puffer jacker. She was carried on by the assistance guys and I helped settle her into her seat. This lady was sat in the row behind me and being that the load was light, she was sat by herself. A very quiet lady, thankful for the assistance and was happy to get on with her reading she had brought.

This was quite a long Band 3 flight and the service was completed quite quickly due to the light loads. We had all cleared away in club, and I made the rounds to see if my 4 "Specials" were ok. The couple were happily asleep, hand in hand, catching sore throats with their mouths open...

The BOAC dolly was being entertained by my male colleague from the back galley, and he appeared to be having a ball with the lady, so I went to see how the lovely lady in row 9 was getting on. She smiles on my asking how she was, and asked if she could have a glass of white wine. Which of course I obliged. Offering her the choice from Club, including the champagne, to which she was a little taken aback, but said that if I was sure, then she would love a drop of the fizzy stuff. Which I duly went to retrieve from the ice box in the forward galley.

Now, my dad is very much into history. His area of knowledge so to speak is the 2nd World War. When I brought the lady her beverage of choice, I noticed one of the books she had with her. A picture type book, featuring the World War 2 fighter, the Spitfire. Which got me talking about my dad, and my education of all things related to that period in history, and was I ever about to have my education continued!

It turned out that this lady was on her way to see a very old friend, who she had not seen for over 40 years. The lady she was going to see now lived in the place we were going to, having moved there in the 50's after marrying a man from the city. The knew each other through both being long serving members of the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War 2, flying and delivering Spitfires all over the UK, as well as others, including the Lancaster, an aircraft I had a passion for as a boy. I returned to the galley and asked the purser, who was a delight, if I could sit with the lady for a little while and listen to her talking of the times she spent in the ATA. "Oh gosh, of course... ", so I prepared myself a "Shag in the Galley" (Orange and Cranberry juice, with ice and a slice) and returned to take a seat next to the lady.

With just under an hour of the flight remaining, we chatted for the entire time till the 10 minutes to landing call was made. Mrs. X told me tale after tale of her and her counterparts flights around the UK, feats of heroism, bailing out over the Yorkshire Moors after an engine failure. Falling in love with airmen who never returned. She told me about the life on base, the hanger parties that took place with the american service men and all that entailed. She had me crying at one point, telling of her greatest love, who she waited for to return from a night time raid over germany, but who never made it back, only weeks after having proposed marriage to her.

In the almost 3 years I have been walking along the path of flying as a career, this was one of the most enjoyable and rewarding flights I have ever undertaken. Not for the part of having done something remarkable, but to do with meeting some remarkable people. I have always, and always will have the upmost respect for my seniors, and especially the people who, in the past and present, put their lives on the line to make me safe and have given me what I have got today. Freedom and the country I love as we know it.

Sorry, bit of long short tale, just felt like writing about it!