When we were attacked on September 11, 2001, our airline world was turned upside down (as well as other sectors within our country).  Twenty months after the 9/11 attack, I was one of 2500 flight attendants who retired in mass after United took a third of our pay and benefits away.  Within a 2-month period, I went from thinking I had several more years of flying ahead of me to being a retired person, not yet 59 years old.  Because of this drastic life change, my creative side started writing about my airline memories, feelings, and breathtaking disappointment over how our airline treated its devoted employees.
With all these emotions, the book, Turbulent Skies, was manifested.  In this first book, I wrote, “Maybe someday someone will write a book about what the flight crews did on the morning of September 11th on the four flights that were hijacked and crashed.  Ten years later, I started researching and writing the book The Forgotten:  The Flight Crews of 9/11.  In writing this book, I also delved into airline history.  It is interesting how emotions come to the surface when one goes deep within oneself to find truth.  I remember what really bothered me was how the crews flying that day were so ignored in the media.  The crew members were described as “plus crew” in articles about the events of the day.  Later in that tenth year, I had wings made with the number 33 (which was the total number of flight crew members that perished that late Tuesday morning.