Flight Story #1299
From Calgary, AB > Sault Ste. Marie, ON – $966.45
Thanks to Toronto Pearson Airport, Mariah is flying from Calgary to Sault Ste. Marie with Give A Mile, to be with her father—because time is short, and in her words “being able to see him and spend a little time with him one last time would mean the world.”
Her father had been through a storm of diagnoses: first pneumonia, then pulmonary fibrosis, and finally, the news that shattered her world—stage 4 lung cancer, with signs it had also spread to his brain. With no treatment options left, he chose to spend his last months at home, surrounded by family, under palliative care.
The trip meant more than words could capture. Although her father was always physically present, as Mariah grew, his own struggles created an emotional rift between them. Mariah was left wishing for the father of her childhood, a wish which was granted only recently. Mariah reflected: “Over the past year or so he has finally been that man. I finally felt like I had my dad back just to be told I’m going to lose him for good.”
Mariah lives in Calgary and has a modest income. “We are pretty much living paycheque to paycheque” she said. A trip to the remote small town where her dad lives would have been impossible without help.
That’s when Toronto Pearson Airport stepped up to sponsor Mariah’s flight, helping Give A Mile provide a flight of compassion that brought a daughter home to her father.
Mariah heartbreakingly foreshadowed her future without her father, noting “My dad won’t be there to see me on my wedding day, walk me down the aisle, meet my children and so many other milestones that he should get.” But she could be there for him, now, and create a new milestone together.