Celetial Flight
by Elizabeth MacKethan Magid, WASP 44-W-2

Words seemed to come from a Source other than herself

While in the WASPs as part of class 44-2, Elizabeth MacKethan Magid, "Kit", became good friends with Marie Michell Robinson.   They made a pact while training in Sweetwater to be with the bereaved mother of the other if anything ever happened.   After completing training, Kit was sent to Cochran Field, Georgia, and Marie was sent to Victorville Air Force Base, California.   On October 2, 1944, Marie was killed in a B-25 crash.   Prior to visiting Marie's mother and just after completing a test flight, where she recalled fond memories of Marie, Kit pened this poem.   It is now required reading at all WASP departures.

CELESTIAL FLIGHT:

She is not dead --
But only flying higher,
Higher than she's flown before,
And earthlly limitations
Will hinder her no more.

There is no service ceiling.
Or any fuel range,
And there is no anoxia,
Or need for engine change.
Thank God that now her flight can be
To heights her eyes had scanned,
Where she can race with comets,
And buzz the rainbow's span.

For she is universal
Like courage, love and hope,
And all free, sweet emotions
Of vast and godly scope.

And understand a pilot's Fate
Is not the thing she fears,
But rather sadness left behind,
Your heartbreak and your tears.

So all you loved ones, dry your eyes,
Yes, it is wrong that you should grieve
For she would love your courage more,
And she would want you to believe
She is not dead.
For you should have known
That she is flying higher,
Higher than she's ever flown.

by Elizabeth MacKethan Magid, WASP 44-W-2
copyright 1979