The Queen Of Heaven - Amelia Earhart
Image Source - NYTimes.com
When we search throughout history for great characters, we find people who have changed the course of the world, their feats and actions have been immortalized in time, it is incredible to think that even though they are no longer physically alive, they live in the memory of a whole planet that studies, reads and researches about their achievements. This is the case of this extraordinary woman, who unfortunately left this earth before her time, but today we want to pay her a heartfelt tribute, telling her story, telling who she was and what she did. Learn about the life and work of the one and only Amelia Earhart.
¿Who was Amelia Earhart?
For many, she was a great aviator, who changed the course of the aviation world and proved that women are made for great things. For us, she was a persevering, constant, intelligent, and feisty woman who set herself challenges, which she overcame at a dizzying pace. Her figure was an inspiration for an entire country, she managed to conquer the hearts of all the citizens of a nation that was beginning to wake up and understand that a woman could be good inside and outside the home, her feats were so well known that she became the voice of feminism to such an extent that her fame was used to fight for those who needed to be heard, who needed a stronger voice.
¿What is her story?
Born on July 24, 1897, in the bosom of a beautiful family, in the city of Kansas (USA), from very young she was forging her great personality, something that caused much astonishment among her parents, because she did not behave as expected at that time, her character was decisive, her adventurous spirit spoke for her, her way of seeing life, and above all, she understood that her life could be more fascinating than just staying at home having children, she began to admire those women who achieved great feats occupying professions or trades that were mostly only for men, she even had an album with newspaper clippings where she talked about them.
It is curious, that despite not having had the best childhood, because her father did not have a stable job, and therefore was dedicated to travel much of the country, trying to generate income to support his family, this young girl was not inhibited to dream, and to seek ways to fight for what she wanted, most of the time lived at home with her grandparents, with her mother and sister. When they turned 8 years old, everything seemed to get better, they found a permanent home in Iowa City, their mother always went to great lengths to give her daughters a real home, love and lots of attention. But nothing is forever, his stability vanished, due to his father, he was again unemployed, and this led him to submerge his sorrows and problems in alcohol, this implied again to travel again, in search of another job and stability.
However, Amelia's mother got tired of so many trips, so many problems, and decided to settle in Chicago with her daughters, as time went by, Miss Amelia was already a woman, when she was 20 years old, an event happened that paralyzed the world, the First World War took place, And with it also a pandemic that many called The Spanish Flu, as mentioned above, this woman with such a good heart and adventurous personality, did not think twice, and joined the group of volunteer nurses in a Canadian Field Hospital, to help those who were attacked by this terrible virus. Her life took an interesting turn, it turns out that while she was a nurse in Toronto, she visited an airfield, seeing those planes, caught her attention and curiosity, so much so, that a few years later, she attended a big event in California.
Six months after officially "graduating" from Neta Snook's school, she bought her first plane, with the support of her parents, she chose a yellow color, which made her baptize it as the Canary. Thanks to this airplane, she managed to break a record, being the first woman to exceed 4,300 meters of altitude, her effort and dedication gave her a reward that she would always enjoy, being the 16th woman to earn her pilot's license, her passion for the world of aviation, led her to promote it through columns of different newspapers, her voice began to be heard, many women saw in her inspiration and admiration, however not everyone saw with good eyes, that a woman was dedicated to a profession that was traditionally for men.
Amelia's life changed dramatically when, in April 1928, she received a unique and tempting job offer: "Do you want to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic? You can imagine what was the answer of this incredible girl, obviously it was a YES, they arranged a meeting in New York City, where she met the people in charge of this ambitious project, and the man in charge of advertising, George Putnam, who would become years later her partner and husband. The trip was already planned, the only thing left to do was to put together the team that would accompany Miss Amelia Earhart, which was formed as follows: Wilmer "Bill" Stultz (Pilot), Amelia Earhart (Pilot) and Louis E. "Slim" Gordon (Co-pilot and Mechanic). The aircraft they used for this great journey was baptized as Amistad, they took off on June 17, 1928, from Canada, their point of arrival was Wales, the greatest thing was that after 21 hours, the world woke up with the news that these three great pilots had succeeded, the trip was a success, in the streets of the United States, there was joy, happiness, many shouted, because Miss Amelia, along with her friends, had achieved what many perhaps considered impossible.
When they returned to the United States, they were received as true heroes, so much was the emotion that President Calvin Coolidge himself, received them at the White House, the fame that Amelia obtained led her to give voice to all those women who wanted to dedicate themselves to the world of aviation, She married George, who became her publicist, everything indicates that this man was a fundamental piece in her life, his constant support, led her to continue wanting to give more in this interesting world, her ambition to travel the skies, did not end, In 1932 she set out to become the first woman and the second person to make a solo flight from Canada to Paris, however the plans did not go as planned, due to weather conditions and some problems with her airplane, she was forced to divert her route to avoid an unfortunate event, and decided to land in Ireland, in an agricultural field, a shepherd who was walking his cattle, was surprised to see the aircraft and woman landing in front of his eyes, the news spread like wildfire around the world, the media already began to speak of her as a woman without limits, an icon of aviation and above all a great pioneer. This great feat earned her great recognition and awards, and she was even catalogued as a heroine of the skies.
Her Last Flight
When we are good at something, we always want to give the best of us, we look for the way to do great things, that's how Amelia was, her persistence, her attitude, always thinking big, in the future, and she wanted to go beyond, she wanted to break the limits, the barriers, not to stay only with what she had, That is why she broke a great number of records making flights from Mexico to New York, Honolulu to California, however her real challenge would come in 1937, she proposed to be the first woman to fly around the world, around the equator, a dream, idea or plan quite risky and ambitious, however she took on the challenge and the consequences. In life we have certain signs, that we should capture, when something goes wrong the first time, you can try it a second time, perhaps not run the same risk, but here it was the opposite, her first failure came in Pearl Harbor, accompanied by the young Fred Noonan, who was her radio operator, decided to make the same trip on June 1 of that year, departed from Miami, was making his trip by scales, which passed through several continents: South America, Africa, Asia. On June 29, they arrived in New Guinea, but the weather began to be a problem, the atmospheric conditions were not the best for flying the skies, the rain prevented them from seeing accurately. Amelia Earhart told a U.S. Coast Guard cutter about the situation and informed him that they were running out of fuel, she told him that she could not see the island, from there there was no more communication, that day Amelia disappeared, the U.S. Government decided to allocate about 4 million dollars in the search for this Star Pilot, But it was all in vain, neither the plane nor its crew members appeared, today their disappearance remains an enigma, this gave rise to many theories, the most accepted of which is that they arrived at an island Nikumaroro, where they lived as castaways until they died. Although their end was tragic, and left us with that bitter taste in our mouths, today they are still remembered, studied and admired by many people in this world.
The simple fact of facing a whole unknown world, where many were betting on her failure, being so persevering, constant, and following her dreams, makes her a woman worthy of admiration, for many women she became a heroine and source of inspiration, Amelia's legacy is still more alive than ever, and wherever she is, no doubt she should feel proud of what she did and what she left, today there are many women who can fly an airplane, commercial and private, all thanks to the struggle that this The Queen Of Heaven started.
What do you think about the life and work of this great woman?
Do you think that if there had not been those setbacks she would have achieved her goal?
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I think things happen the way they are supposed to happen. She was one more example of the courage of women. I have always enjoyed reading about her, even the fictional stories written about her. Good post, good read.