A 92-year-old new hampshire woman has celebrated her birthday by sky-diving from a plane at 13,000 feet.
Swanzey, New Hampshire resident Jane Bockstruck told The Keene Sentinel newspaper she doesn't know what overcame her when she decided to take the parachute jump.
With a group of friends and relatives watching, on September 19th Bockstruck leaped from a plane, after taking off from the Jumptown skydiving club in Orange, Massachusetts, west of Boston. She says she was so excited by the whole adventure that doesn't clearly recall her actual jump from the skydiving plane.
But tandem partner and jump instructor Paul Peckham Jr. says she had perfect form and landed without a hitch.
He says she's the oldest person he's taken on a jump. The second-oldest was 78.
Bockstruck says she's been married seven times, has traveled the world and has had jobs ranging from hotel desk clerk to seamstress for the John Wayne movie "True Grit."
Source: The Keene Sentinel, http://www.keenesentinel.com
Normally Anne would comment on a geriatric tale like this, but I volunteered, because it sounds like something my late great-aunt would have done, and I think it's truly amazing for anyone to be that adventurous, so late in life.
If you only live once, what better time than your 90's to throw caution to the wind! Didn't Mr. George H. W. Bush do the exact same thing for his 85th? Maybe this will become some new kind of trend, or something.
I have about a couple of decades before I retire, but I can't say exactly that I'll be looking forward to doing a skydive around then. Maybe, if I ever have grand kids, I'll consider getting back on the roller coaster at Dollywood, but I'm not making any promises.
Getting older should allow us more free time to add a store of good memories and experiences, but life isn't always fair in that way. However, it should be a goal, no matter where or how we choose to "make memories."
Jane Bockstruck is fortunate enough to have had a full, rich life, and adding on extra years shouldn't stop that from continuing. In her own way, she's an inspiration to us all.
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