How Skydiving Changed My Life

In August of 2008, I was diagnosed with stage IV non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The doctors and other medical center staff told me that I had about six months to live and that treatment was not an option. Being the fighter that I am, I told them they were insane and that I would go broke getting treatments before I would allow myself to die. One year later, I was in remission. I felt that life had just flashed before my eyes. I proved, not only to the... Read More

How Skydiving Changed My Life

One of the first things I tell people when they ask me about skydiving is that it goes from being an experience to a hobby to a lifestyle, and those of us who are licensed jumpers can attest to the gravity of that statement (pun intended).

In August of 1997, I took a road trip across the country with a friend. We were sitting in a Denny’s® drinking our morning coffee and wondering what to do that day, when I ran to the phone booth, ripped a... Read More

How Skydiving Changed My Life

I had never been interested in skydiving. I have a friend who has skydived for years, but it wasn’t something that was even on my bucket list. I was scared of heights and of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. I thought, “It might be great for other people but not for me.”

Then this past February, I decided to join my friend, Angelica Williams, at the Boogie in Belize. My plan was to hang out at the beach, explore the town, have fun at... Read More

How Skydiving Changed My Life

Twenty-five years ago, when I was in veterinary school, I had a classmate who posted an advertisement about skydiving on a bulletin board in a school hallway. Although he never got enough people together to make it happen, he planted a seed in my mind: Someday, I would check out the sport. Then I graduated, went to work and got married.

Fifteen years later, my husband quite suddenly announced he “kinda had a girlfriend” (his exact words) and... Read More

How Skydiving Changed My Life

If I had a nickel for every time my mother said, “You and your daddy are insane,” I could buy myself a new rig. (OK, so maybe it would take a dollar instead of a nickel.) I smile when she says this, knowing that our insanity is the best thing that ever happened to us.

It was a beautiful day in October 2008 when my 84-year-old dad and I did our first tandems. It took us several years to finally get there, on a plane, strapped to strangers,... Read More

How Skydiving Changed My Life

It was, as they say, on my “bucket list.” I was 42 years old, at least 50 pounds overweight, and I’d just ended a 10-year relationship that had been anything but good. I needed some excitement in my life. When I walked onto the drop zone on August 8, 2009, I expected to put a check mark by that item on my list and never return.

The tandem jump was awful for me from the beginning. First, when I weighed in, I found out that I weighed 210... Read More

How Skydiving Changed My Life

The roar of the bulldozer was getting closer and closer. It was then that I saw someone coming. The moment he started to yell, I knew I was not going to be lost forever. It was June 1981. I had been discarded in the Sarpy County, Nebraska, dump, near where Lincoln Sport Parachute Club (LSPC) was located at that time. I was certain to be buried until Kenneth “Sonny” Bader saw me. He pulled me out of the pile of garbage and threw me in the back of his... Read More

How Skydiving Changed My Life

October 7, 2007, and May 4, 2008: two dates that changed my world and my life forever.

After she spent a weekend jumping at a boogie in Star, Idaho, I watched as my daughter Michelle boarded Cessna Caravan N430A for her return to Shelton, Washington. I remember Michelle telling me to stop hugging her so much. After all, I was going to meet with her the next weekend when her grandma and I flew to Seattle.

On Monday morning, October 8,... Read More

How Skydiving Changed My Life

As years of skydiving passed, I noticed that my jumpsuits were starting to get tighter. My fall rate became a challenge, and I couldn’t guarantee that I would be able to honor my part of the skydive. But since I was only making six jumps a month, I continued on as if everything were normal.

I always said health was my number-one value. Since I realized the power of measurement and accountability, for years I tracked my intake and... Read More

How Skydiving Changed My Life

Skydiving has changed my life in so many ways. First, skydiving brought Larry and me together. Although we met in college and had been good friends for almost three years, we never dated—that is, until Larry and his twin brother, Gary, became skydivers. One day, I asked Larry to take me with him. So, for our first date, on July 22, 1979, he took me skydiving in Liberty, North Carolina. I did a static-line jump, and Larry did a solo jump. I fell in... Read More