Nearly a month after Phoenix-based American Airlines flight attendant Phyllis Adair lost her life to COVID-19, her son George and daughter-in-law Catherine are still making sense of their loss and navigating how her absence has upended their lives.
“It’s the fact she’s not around anymore,” George Adair said, his voice shaking.
Phyllis is one of 500,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19 since it appeared in the United States in January 2020.
Just days after Phyllis died, her story was mentioned in a congressional subcommittee hearing as an example of the challenges facing flight attendants and airline employees as Congress considers passing another extension of the Paycheck Protection Program.
Her family, after reading coverage of the hearing, wanted to share why their 79-year-old mother was working during the pandemic.
“She flew 150 hours a month because she needed the…
