The note captured the microcosm of every large commercial flight - grandparents, young lovers, even football fanatics - all of whom lined up to check in at Renuka Manisha Virangna Birbal's airport counter on July 17.
"A beautiful little girl held by her mother, her father behind them pushing the stroller," Ms Birbal wrote in a Facebook post that has since been shared 8000 times.
"She is beautiful; a half Dutch, half Malaysian with beautiful big eyes. She kindly smiled at me.
"Suddenly I see a familiar face. It is our colleague from the MH ticket counter. He proudly shows me his son, wife and daughter. With a big smile he waved 'See you soon'."
The candid moments the Amsterdam air stewardess shared with the passengers of MH17 took on a lasting significance when Ms Birbal realised only hours later that the plane she had checked them all on to had been blown out of the skies over Ukraine.
One of her passengers was about to start a new life in Malaysia, another was heading home to attend his mother's funeral.
She would have been one of the last people to see them before they boarded the flight. Those on board included 15 crew members with whom Ms Birbal had worked and whom she counted as colleagues.
"The last time I saw them, talked to them and wished them a pleasant flight, the passengers of flight MH017 on 17Jul14," Ms Birbal wrote on Monday.
The post, originally written in Dutch, was published by one of the largest newspapers in the Netherlands, De Telegraaf.
Ms Birbal finished by describing the final smile and salute she shared with her co-worker and bid the passengers rest in peace.
