Imagine seeing yourself from 70 years ago at a crowded airport. It can be surprising to suddenly catch a glimpse of yourself in a mirror. Gwendolyn Bruhn, a 94-year-old ex-flight attendant, experienced this. Bruhn recently discovered herself in a group photograph of airline hostesses from 1947 when departing with her family from Honolulu, Hawaii’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.

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Earlier this year, Gwendolyn Bruhn, 94, came face to face with her past when she saw this photo of 1940s flight attendants at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii.

"I thought, 'Oh my god,'" Gwen told @CNNTravel "I saw my picture, as I was years back." (1/2) pic.twitter.com/b1pfEDxWJK

— Francesca Street (@FL_Street) November 29, 2022

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The outfits the girls were wearing at the time are fascinating: long skirts, spectator pumps, a pristine yellow button-up blouse, and flowers in their hair. Because of how different things were at the time, Bruhn was filled with memories when she unexpectedly found herself on the wall. In the image above, she may be seen in the upper right corner.

As reported by CNN After learning that the airline was hiring through a friend who worked there, Bruhn was given the position. In an interview, she stated, “At that time, they wore lovely grey uniforms and yellow blouses, and they were quite attractive. I had admired them from a distance, not knowing that someday I would be lucky to be wearing that same outfit.”

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Additionally, Bruhn remembered being questioned during the job interview if she had ever flown before and if she had ever been ill as a result of it. In spite of the reality that she had never really flown, she made the decision to lie and claim to have done so.

She was successful in landing the job, but her first few flights were plagued by nausea and air sickness. The rides weren’t as smooth then, unfortunately! In addition, the aircraft were fairly modest compared to the large jets used nowadays. She would really frequently be the sole flight attendant on board, which meant she would have to deal with anything from passengers trying to sneak alcohol on board.

She did, however, love her position and the opportunities she had to represent Hawaii, which at the time was not yet a state, to the rest of the globe while travelling and meeting people from all over the world. This required maintaining a specific weight, which was a requirement at the time for all airlines to keep flight attendants looking, in Bruhn’s words, “trim.”

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Before she met her husband, William Carl Bruhn II, she developed a passion of flying and even had dreams of becoming a pilot. She later gave up her work to start a family.  In those days flight attendants were almost always expected to be single without kids.  Similar to many other industries, it was typically expected that if you were married and had children, you would leave your job. In fact, several companies explicitly prohibited married women and mothers couldn’t work for them.

The couple had 4 kids and were married for 62 years before he passed away in 2012. Today she has 11 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. Even a few members of her family later worked for Hawaiian Airlines. I’m delighted I got to work for Hawaiian Airlines for a while, Bruhn added. I never will forget how lucky I was to have all these memories to sit down with.”

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