I read this story a few weeks ago and was greatly moved.

The part that got to me the most was this photo… You see, a veteran flight attendant was diagnosed with terminal cancer with raped onset.  She immediately left her beloved job to take care of what needed to be done before her soon approaching demise.

The flight attendant’s brother was on a flight (on her airline) to fly to visit with his dying sister.  He asked if he could have the PA system for a moment.  He told the crew and passengers how much his sister loved to fly and loved this airline – and that she was on her deathbed.

The crew and passengers (all of them) made a heart with their hands… and wrote their sentiments on napkins that the brother mounted on a poster board to present to his sister.

That just got to me… such a kind gesture from the brother and these strangers.

ORIGINAL STORY

(You can read the original story here.)

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant, whose brother shared her story on a “final flight” this week, has died due to pancreatic cancer, according to her family.

LouAnn Alexander was a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines for 34 years and loved it, according to her daughter Layne Salvo.

“She looked forward to every trip,” Salvo told ABC News. “She loved being able to encounter all the passengers.”

Alexander was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February of this year, according to Salvo. She died Monday, exactly eight weeks after her diagnosis.

Her brother, Rex Ridenoure, wrote that the disease progressed quickly and she soon became too ill to fly. He wrote a moving post about turning his business trip on a Southwest flight last month into an impromptu “last flight” for his sister.

“I asked a flight attendant two seats away who was also waiting to board whether there might be some of those little plastic Southwest Airlines wings on the plane,” he wrote.

“’Yes,’ she said. ‘What do you plan to do with the wings?’”

“’Well,’ I replied, ‘my sister is one of you — a Southwest flight attendant — and she’s very, very ill. I’ll be seeing her very soon and thought that bringing her a few pair of wings from me and the crew might help her feel better. She never got a chance to say goodbye to the flying she loved so much.'”

The flight attendant knew his sister, Ridenoure said, and after he was on board he was allowed to say a few words about her.

“I was allowed to stand up at the head of the aisle under a spotlight and, using the intercom phone briefly summarize who I was, who you were LouAnn, your desire since a little girl to be a flight attendant, your SWA flying career, what transpired during the previous 6 weeks or so, etc.,” he wrote.