“This is so sad. Olin and Dusty were such sweet people,” I read as I idly scanned face book posts. Then I saw the words, plane crash, and recognized two familiar names. It couldn’t be! The pilot couple we had met one day at the church next door to our son’s house! In fact, they came a couple of times and were long-time friends of the pastor. I remember asking the petite, attractive, senior citizen about her name.
“Is your name, Dusty, because you were a crop duster?” I asked her, half joking. She said no, she had never sprayed crops, but somehow she had picked up that nickname. I read in the news clip that her name was Paula. I couldn’t believe it when she told me she was 81. She looked sixty to me.
Her husband was a former state senator. We had run into him one other time at the hospital. He recognized us right away and had a friendly greeting and witty remark about something. In retrospect I remember the day they were at the church I wasn’t feeling well and had prayer for healing. As I sat down, he said, “Well, you look pretty!”
The paper said they were taking the OSU Basketball coach and assistant, who were also killed, on a recruiting trip. They had told us about their work with Angel Flights, providing air transportation for charity or community service. “I’ve carried lots of hearts,” he told us.
For the second time in two weeks we have been startled by unexpected deaths in people we knew, if ever so slightly. Again, we are saying to ourselves and each other, “You just never know.” When Howard said that to me the other day after our pastors and evangelist were injured in a wreck and the evangelist’s wife was killed, I said, “Yes, you do know. It’s a fact that we will all leave this life someday. It’s just that we don’t know when.”
“Whenever you asked Dusty how she was, she always said, ‘I’m blessed,’ my friend’s fb post continued. “You can guarantee they’re singing in heaven right now,” she finished.
Olin, the honorable senator, carried hearts, extending lives to those on earth, and making many hearts glad. Now they have taken their last Angel Flight, this time themselves carried by angels, as all will be who have given their heart to Him.
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