I know my fireman buddy is with his Lord as we speak. That's a comfort, and knowing that he died doing what he absolutely loved to do is another. But he left behind a wife and two daughters, and that hurts.
I flew again for the first time back in March and was really nervous. Not scared, but nervous and cautious. I was really checking everything out and made a point of asking to be seated where I could be of the most help if there were a problem.
When I was "next" in line at the baggage check-in the airport paging system started paging someone with the same name as BCM.
I was just stunned to hear his name being paged at that instant. I sent that story to Mrs. BCM but never heard back from her. She probably thought I was some nut job.
I now page him everytime I go to the airport as my own little way of remembering. I had to fly for my Grandma's funeral two weeks ago and it felt good to hear his name. Sort of a missing man formation thing to me.