APRIL, 2021 Newsletter
Happy Easter
Everyone!
Representing our group, Patrons of the 1956 Grand Canyon Midair Collision, we are pleased to announce that we now have thirty members, which to our minds is substantial. Thirty people would not fit comfortably in our house, and it’s a two-story house. That’s a crowd.
We propose that as many of us who feel inclined have an informal get-together. Since our house is too small for a full group meeting, and not exactly conveniently located anyway, being roughly 1,200 miles east-northeast of the South Rim, and furthermore, because the threat of COVID-19 is still very real, how about if we meet each other on our computers, via Zoom?
Barbara is working now on how to set that up, and we are planning on Sunday, May 16, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., MST. As soon as she has this all organized, we will be sending invitations to participate to all of our members. If you are not already a member and are interested in belonging to our group, please contact Barbara through our group email so she can officially and expressly include you. Our email is:1956gcdisaster@gmail.com.
I plan to give a short talk at or near the beginning of the meeting, on the circumstances of the tragedy. I realize of course that many or most of us already know what happened in some detail, so my purpose is to give a little information and clarification to those whose knowledge is more sketchy. Hopefully some of what I say will benefit the more informed members, too. I want to add that if, after my opening talk, some of you have questions that are important to you, the meeting can also support those. I will be glad to answer you the best I can.
To put the focus back where it most surely belongs, however, the primary purpose of our meeting is to become acquainted and have some fun in the process.
Sincerely,
Mike Nelson
mn: president of Patrons of the 1956 Grand Canyon Midair Collision
and editor of the group website
Hello everyone,
This is Barbara. One of the newest ideas I am attempting is to create a Zoom connection that is open to our group members. Mike and Tom wanted the members to have the opportunity to “zoom-in,” say hello, and get to know each other, so I am hoping to make this possible for them. As I progress through putting the virtual online meeting together, and when it becomes ready to go live, I will be sending out a special bulletin and the steps needed to attend the meeting. We look forward to meeting you. It’s actually exciting to think we will be able to put faces with the names of our members!
My ongoing project of adding as many photographs of the victims as I can to the special page I designed on the website is growing slowly but steadily. I can only do this with the help of family members, friends and maybe even the two airlines. It is my hope that one day all 128 persons’ photographs and some kind of a biography about them will be posted there. If you want to see the modest accomplishments I have made so far, you can go to the group website at www.1956gcmidaircollision.com.
In order to preserve the history of this accident, and to increase the interest in it, I would appreciate your involvement in whatever way you wish to give it. If you are a family member of one of the victims and have photographs of your loved one that you would like to add, I would love to see them. If you have letters or postcards sent to you or someone in your family on or shortly before June 30, 1956, from a passenger on either flight, they would be invaluable in knowing in some small way who these people were, and what they were doing. These people lost their lives tragically, and what they did in the days and hours beforehand matters. I recognize some of these things might be very personal and possibly very intimate. And because of that, you may not want to share some of those intimacies in their entirety. That is fine, and I respectfully will honor your wishes and edit what you send in accordance to how you would like it published.
There is another section that I designated “Our Stories.” These are heartfelt stories by family members, and others who have a special connection to this tragedy, and how it affected them. I welcome and encourage you to sit down and write something about how this affected you and your family, or how it has influenced your life even if you are not a family member. It can be as short as you like or it can be long, and you may think it is trivial or unimportant, but believe me, everything about this accident is of importance.
To end with where the present newsletter began, Mike wrote in our very first newsletter: “Communication is the opening benefit of the fellowship, that much and that modest. We invite you to look at our website ~ it can far more adequately express what we’re all about and who we are than this short writing can. We hope to hear from you.”
Sincerely,
Barbara Nelson
bn: secretary of Patrons of the 1956 Grand Canyon Midair Collision
