A former flight attendant, who has terminal cancer, only had one final wish. She wanted to take to the skies one last time to see the clouds. Being a flight attendant was a dream job for 79-year-old Janet McAnnally.
The former flight attendant got to finish out one last wish, going up into the sky. McAnnally has been battling a stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis for some time. But she recently decided to stop her treatments for the disease, choosing to focus on the time that she had left instead. Through the Last Wish Program offered by her hospice care, the flight attendant got to fly one last time, according to KOVR-TV.
United Airlines pilot Rob Davis took McAnnally on a hour-long flight through Calaveras County in California. She even got the chance to step into the pilot's chair for the first time ever.
Flight Attendant Flies
"I think I was more excited than emotional about it until when it was done and I realized what we had just done," McAnnally said. "It had rained earlier and so the land just looked beautiful. All the sudden, the moon began to come up and that got me, I think I got a little emotional."
For McAnnally, it's a close on an accomplished and long life. As a young child, she always wanted to travel. She finally got the chance to be a flight attendant for Trans World Airlines when she was 26-years-old. She only worked in the role for 7 years, but it's a time that she remembered fondly.
"I opened the cover of my fourth grade geography book, and there was a black and white picture of the Sphinx and the pyramids," she told the outlet. "I thought, 'I want to see the world.' That became my obsession."
When her cancer spread to her spine, she opted to stop her treatments for the cancer. Instead, she wanted to appreciate the time that she has left on this Earth.
"I've had a lovely life," McAnnally said. "There's no point, even if it's only a month or two left, to sit around and do nothing or to just moan and cry over it. Better to cry happy tears and enjoy as much as you can."
