Ladies and gentleman, thank you for
choosing Life Airlines. Please prepare for takeoff.
I started flying Cessna airplanes
when I was 18 years old, and by the time I was 20, I was flying my
family for vacations. Being afforded such an opportunity was probably
all due to my father’s diligence. You could also say it was
sort of in my blood.
Ayoub Barghelame moved to America from Tabriz,
Iran in the early 1970s to pursue his college studies, leaving behind
his family’s prominent and successful Barghelame Towels business.
He met my mother, Mary, and they soon were the proud parents of three
kids; my brother Ali, my sister Yasamin, and yours truly. If he hadn’t
taken off before our country was torn apart by revolution, I might
have never had a chance to fly.
I always had a penchant for traveling to Europe,
and soon it became my dream to become a commercial airline pilot so
that I could see the world. I graduated from Fort Collins High School
in near Loveland, Colorado, and was a pretty decent tennis player.
I even placed third in the state tournament my senior year. I remember
when we were in the second-place match, and it all came down to me.
I didn’t mind the spotlight either: With everyone else done
with their matches, my teammates drove to watch my play.
“Nobody comes back from down 5-2 in the state
championship (tournament), nobody," my brother Ali explained
to some friends after the match. Ali was always jabbing at me, but
that’s what older brothers are for, right? Everything from my
cooking to my dancing to my snowboarding; if I was horrible at it,
Ali was the first to jump on it. It hadn’t matter this time,
though.
I won the match.
You may unfasten your seatbelts, for our flight
is now underway.
We have reached maximum altitude.
My father, whom many of us lovingly
referred to as Abe, owned Avalanche Motors, a flourishing used-car
dealership. I guess it was from him that I derived my business savvy.
I was still in college, studying aviation at Metropolitan State University
in Denver, but I was looking for another challenge. My sister and
I decided to try our hand in business.
The potential financial gain wasn’t as important
as the real reason Yasamin and I started our own online pharmacy,
MexicoMedsOnline.com. After learning how much my vulnerable grandparents
were paying for medicine, we decided to find a solution. We vowed
to offer name-brand as well as generic prescription medications at
more affordable prices. Before we knew it, we were generating a positive
response from our customers, as well as making some money. I guess
in a way, we had reached our own maximum altitude.
Despite the time I had to commit to studying and
my business, tennis had remained a constant part of my life. I remember
a college match against Colorado Christian University. I was winning
handily but just drifted off for a moment, gazing to the sky instead
of across the net
"A plane was flying over," my friend Tia explained to my
parents. Whenever she would see a plane flying over, she'd say, “There
goes Nadia.”
I earned my multi-engine, instrument rated private
and commercial pilot’s license in two short years. Eager to
earn sufficient flight hours to become a commercial pilot, I had started
working with another instructor in 2002 to gain more experience with
multi-engine airplanes. Mom, dad, Ali, my grandfather Rod, my grandmother
Nell, and my uncle David – they were all pilots.
This is your captain. Please don’t be alarmed,
but we are experiencing some heavy turbulence.
Whatever happened on December 17,
2004, it wasn’t because of my inexperience. This much, I know.
Am I angry? No. And my brother explained it best. “I swear she
lived more in 20 years than most people live in a lifetime,”
Ali said. He was right – I was lucky.
I radioed the tower and reported engine problems
right before the plane went down. I wasn’t sure what was going,
and I was scared, but why would anything go wrong? My instructor,
Darrel Taylor, had schooled me for situations like this: 80 percent
of my 2003 training included preparations for how to handle emergencies
“It was sideways when the pilot was trying
to bank it back around. It wasn't just like a wing dip; it looked
like the pilot was banking it really hard to the right, maybe, possibly,
trying to go back to the airport," said eyewitness Cheche Mata.
"Playing it back in my mind, coming down from 100 feet, and probably
at the speed it was coming, I'm not sure anyone could have gotten
out. And of course, there was a huge fireball, probably 50 feet high."
The plane dragged its right wing, then cartwheeled, landing right-side
up.
My plane had crashed. The Douglas County coroner's
office said that my body was so badly burned that dental records had
to be used to identify it. Craig Markley, 72, of Fort Collins, and
my flight instructor Roy Crain, 60, of Michigan, also perished in
the crash.
“The next thing we know, we’re never the same.”
–
Rev. Sathi Bunyan, reading from the Bible at the funeral service.
I wish I could have hugged them all, all 1350 of
them that attended.
They say funerals are a time to mourn a loss, a death. I think it’s
better to think of them as a time to celebrate a life.
“She found her true love in flying, and we all know it's not
a tragedy to die doing what you love," Yasamin said. She was
the older sister, so she always knew better than me. And she was right.
“If that is the way I am supposed to die,” I had once
told my friend Laura, “so be it.”
Brian, my boyfriend of two years, still mourns.
I want him to know that I am all right.
“It hurts to breathe without you here,"
Brian said at the service. He said he remembered the smell of my wet
hair on a pillow. He remembered me singing songs without actually
knowing the lyrics. He remembered our first kiss. “If I had
the chance, I'd trade my life at the drop of a hat,” he concluded.
If I had the chance, I wouldn’t let you.
“Every minute I spent with you was my favorite,"
Ali said. Oh, brother… I forgive you for making fun of my one-legged
dance.
Neither mom or dad spoke, but mom wrote a letter that was read aloud.
It ended with, "My dearest Nadia, please feel my loving arms
around you forever."
I never stopped feeling them mom.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Everything I did, it was an endeavor from my heart. And I am glad
that though my body is gone, my name remains to maintain my heartfelt
quest.
***************
Nadia’s Barghelame’s family and friends
have set up the Nadia Barghelame Memorial Fund to provided scholarships
for women pursuing a degree in aviation at Metropolitan State College
in Denver, Colorado. Also, 10% of all profits from MexicoMedsOnline.com
go towards the fund.
To learn more about Nadia and the Nadia Barghelame
Memorial fund, please visit www.mexicomedsonline.com, or call 1-888-247-8558.
Written correspondence can be sent to Nadia Barghelame Memorial Fund,
Home State Bank, 300 East 29th Street, Loveland, CO 80538
-Mayar Zokaei
