It was a hot sweltering August evening
At Detroit Metro Airport in 1987
August 16th
The fateful day
Of Northwest Airlines Flight 255
The flight that never returned
A normal pushback from the gate
An ordinary taxi
A standard acceleration down the runway
Cecilia was only four years old
Her family returning home
From their family vacation seeing relatives
Her 6 year old brother and parents sat close by
The flaps and slats
The flaps were not set for takeoff
A critical pilot error
As the plane roared down the runway
The MD-80 could not rotate
The plane could not get lift soon enough
Once it lifted it rolled
Side to side
Violently shaking
Striking a light pole
Slamming into the Avis Rental Car Building
Crashing into Middlebelt Road
Inverted
156 people died
But there was one sole survivor
Little Cecilia Cichan
Some say her mother shielded her
Some say she was found alone
Upside down still buckled in her seat
A true living miracle
In the fiery wreckage an angel appeared
Firefighter John Thiede
He heard a faint moaning
Then he saw her
He gently pulled this whimpering girl out of the wreckage
With a broken leg
Third degree burns
A broken skull
And a broken collarbone
But she survived
20 years later
Cecilia married her high school sweetheart
At her wedding there was one special guest
Firefighter John Thiede
Tears rolled down his cheeks as she walked down the aisle
At the reception
Cecilia made sure this angel got one special dance
They danced as he grasped her hand
Her hand with the tattoo of an airplane on her wrist
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