Flying high… together!
Kim Crawford loved her new job as cabin crew so much, she even inspired her daughter, Sophie, to take to the skies with her…
‘Excuse me, Mum,’ said my daughter, Sophie, and I moved to one side to let her squeeze past me in the small aisle. A woman in the seats next to us looked up and, glancing between us, smiled at our similar looks. ‘Is that your daughter?’ she asked. ‘That’s amazing!’
I smiled and nodded. Thousands of feet up in the air was probably the last place people expected to come across mum and daughter colleagues. But here we were, flying high, side by side. It was the best feeling in the world.
Sophie and I were both cabin crew for Virgin – and surprisingly, it was me who had taken to the skies first.
When my husband, Derek, and I had children – Mitchell, now 36, Nathan, 33, and Sophie, 29 – I wanted a job that would fit around them. So I set up an art studio with a friend. She was a photographer and I did the sales and marketing. She was a mum too, so we scheduled our hours around school pick-ups and drop-offs. It was a dream.
When my mum, Cathy, turned 60 in 2000, she started suffering with ill-health and arthritis eventually left her wheelchair-bound. Her and my dad, Bryan, lived a 20-minute drive away, so my flexible job meant I could help out.
Sadly, in 2012, she passed away and, just months later, Dad started to struggle, too. He had a pacemaker fitted after struggling to breathe one night and then he was diagnosed with kidney cancer that had spread to his colon.
It was devastating. After looking after Mum for so long, it seemed cruel that having lost her, he was now so ill himself. It seemed only right that I then became his carer.
I ferried him back and forth to the hospital, all the while admiring his bravery at facing such a terrifying illness. But while I didn’t mind doing it, between that and being there for Derek and the kids, I didn’t have much time for myself.
So when Dad was told he was in remission in early 2016, I decided to look for something for myself. That was when I spotted an advert for a job as a member of cabin crew for Thomas Cook.
It was only a six-month contract, doing two to three short-haul flights a week. I’d still see my family – but also have some ‘me’ time. Plus, Mum passed away in her 70s and had been so poorly for so long beforehand,
I felt, at 57, that I owed it to her to make the most of my good health.
When I told everyone I’d applied, they were delighted, if a bit bemused. ‘I’m so proud of you,’ said Derek.
I started training in March and was the oldest by far – no one else seemed to be over 30 and they all had slinky tablets, while I hefted my bulky laptop around.
But that didn’t stop us all bonding. ‘Here’s Mum,’ everyone would smile when I came into the room. And I became an unofficial agony aunt for my 20-something co-workers.
I’ll always remember putting on a final layer of lipstick, double-checking my hair and leaving the house with my mini
wheelie suitcase for my first flight to Gran Canaria. I felt pulled-together and ready for anything – lucky really, as the plane was full of young drunk men who began brawling just after take-off!
Yet, despite its ups and downs, I loved my job. You switched between different flights and colleagues every week and it felt fantastic to be meeting new people and challenging myself.
Devastatingly, Dad took a turn for the worse and passed away that December. But that made me even more grateful for my job – it was a good distraction from my grief.
In early 2018, Sophie and I met a colleague of mine and we were talking about work. ‘You two would make a great fit for Virgin,’ she commented. Sophie was a promotional model and so was used to flying around the world, wherever her work took her.
But I was still surprised when I got home one night and she told me she’d applied for a job with them – especially since I had as well! ‘I could do with a steady income,’ she said. ‘Plus, you sound like you’re having a fab time!’
I waited anxiously to hear back – I didn’t want to get through without my daughter, but I also would have been a bit embarrassed if she was successful and I wasn’t, with my experience.
‘I got my acceptance email!’ she hooted one night in April 2018. And, after three weeks, I got to say the same thing to her!
Luckily, we were in different training lessons but since we both got our Virgin wings, our badge to say we passed training, and after our probationary six months, we could swap our flights to go on the same one. People are always shocked when they realise that we’re related but for me, it’s been the most fantastic experience.
We’ve been to San Francisco together, New York, LA… we’ve even taken the boys across the pond, too.
In March 2020, of course, the travel industry was brought to the ground by the pandemic. I’m not a person to sit around, so I used my first aid training from work to volunteer at a Covid-19 testing site.
But, at 61, I’m looking forward to taking to the skies again, with Sophie right next to me.
‘It felt fantastic to be meeting new people’