Content originally published by KUSA 9news on May 15th, 2016.

KUSA - When Karen Mahany received the contents of her husband’s charred wallet, she noticed a small piece of paper that was unburned.

She read it, and she started crying.

It was a passage from scripture.

“No greater love hath a man than to lay down his life for another,” it said. Karen considered it a sign.

Nine months after her husband died in a fiery Flight for Life crash in Frisco, Karen Mahany still has it. It’s a constant reminder of the character of the man she fell in love with long ago.

“He was fighting that aircraft all the way to the ground to try to put it in a place where his two crew members could survive,” she said. “His crew was his family.”

I WAS 20 MINUTES AWAY

Karen Mahany received the phone call shortly before 2 p.m. on July 3, 2015. Pat’s Flight for Life Airbus AS-350 had gone down shortly after takeoff from Summit Medical Center.

“I just so happened to be off work,” she said. “We were 20 minutes away.”

When she got to the hospital, staff was performing CPR on Pat.

“I begged him to come back to me,” she explained.

Not long after, staff noticed a pulse. It wasn’t strong.

So she started talking to her husband of twelve years.

“I wanted to thank him for choosing me and loving me,” she said.

She told him how proud his son, Ryan, was to be following in his footsteps as a helicopter pilot.

“I got to say goodbye to him, and that was one of the most precious gifts I’ve ever received to be there when the love of my life walked into Heaven,” she said.

Pat Mahany, a Vietnam veteran and one of the most loved members of Colorado’s Flight for Life operation, died shortly after that at the age of 64.

“I miss him, every day, all day. I always will until the day that I see him again,” she told 9Wants to Know reporter Chris Vanderveen.

SURVIVED THREE CRASHES IN VIETNAM

Pat Mahany was an affable Catholic from western New York whose father fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

In 1970, Pat signed up for the Army.

By 1971, he was flying helicopters over the skies of Vietnam. He was shot down three times, and shot once.

When he came home, Karen said, Pat quietly dealt with some of the anti-war sentiment that had developed.

“At the airport in San Francisco, he was called a ‘baby killer,’” said Karen. “So whenever someone thanked him for his service, it meant the world to him. He remained ‘all in’ when it came to serving his country.”

In 1987, Pat joined Flight for Life in Colorado. Karen joined Flight for Life as a nurse in 1998.

Five years later, they were in love. They married each other at the Triple B Ranch in Woodland Park in 2003.

“He was the best,” she said. "The best pilot. The best husband. He loved the Broncos, loved to waterski, and loved his job. His crews always felt safe with him,” she said.

During their wedding ceremony, Pat walked down the aisle in a kilt with bagpipes playing Highland Cathedral in the background.

Twelve years later, the same tune played in the background as the town of Frisco came together to memorialize Pat’s life.

CRASH HIGHLIGHTS INABILITY OF FAA TO MAKE HELICOPTERS SAFER FOR EMS CREWS

Pat once told Karen she needed to be his voice if he ever died in a crash. It’s why she decided to talk with 9Wants to Know.

“If I don’t say anything, then I’m not going to be honoring him,” she said.

She said not too long before he died, they had a conversation about the nature of civilian helicopters.

“He said it was like flying on a gas can. If it goes down, it explodes,” she said.