By Tajuana Cheshier
The Jackson Sun
Funeral services for flight nurses Cindy Parker, 48, of Dyersburg, and Misty Brogdon, 34, of Medina, were held Sunday under dreary skies.
Instead of traditional funeral attire, many of their colleagues spent the day dressed in their dark blue flight suits and held their heads solemnly as they walked into Brogdon’s service Sunday afternoon at West Jackson Baptist Church.
Many of them declined to comment to The Jackson Sun, except for Joyce Noles, who spoke briefly while she stood among the rows of ambulances planned for Brogdon’s procession.
Some of the vehicles, she said, were coming from Parker’s funeral, which was held earlier Sunday.
Noles is the director of the Medical Center’s EMS.
She said about 30 ambulances were expected to be a part of the procession.
Trucks from Fayette, Gibson, Decatur and McNairy counties were lined up outside the church.
Some of the ambulances were adorned with large black ribbons on the front.
During the procession, the trucks used their emergency lights but not the sirens.
Noles said everyone is deeply affected by the lives lost.
“Morale is down, but we all know this is what we do every day,” Noles said. “We leave, and we might not come back.”
Brogdon was a flight nurse for Hospital Wing, a nonprofit medical transport company that operates within a 150-mile radius of Memphis.
Last Thursday, Brogdon, Parker and the crew’s pilot Doug Phillips, 58, of Bartlett were returning to Hospital Wing’s base in Brownsville after taking a patient from Parsons to Jackson when the helicopter crashed in a wheat field east of the Haywood Industrial Park.
No official determination has been made on the cause of the crash.
Services for Phillips will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Faith Baptist Church, 3755 N. Germantown Road in Bartlett.
Noles said she hopes the community continues to pray for the families affected by the tragedy.
“She (Misty) was always enthusiastic about her job and her family,” Noles said. “She was excited about life and living it to the fullest.”
The best way to honor Brogdon, Noles said, is to “do your job with the same enthusiasm she had.”
Republished with permission from The Jackson Sun