Warsaw Woman Celebrates 90th Birthday by Skydiving
Posted
Craig Brosman-
PLYMOUTH – For 20 years Rosemary “Rose” Parsons told her family she would go skydiving when she turned 90.
On Sept. 24, Rose celebrated her 90th birthday and she was ready to take the jump.
Rose, 90, Warsaw, met her son Steve Parsons, 70, Albion, Saturday at Plymouth Sky Sports at the Plymouth Municipal Airport to get ready for their jump at 3 p.m. Rose was surrounded by her family and friends before and after she jumped.
Troy Church, instructor and general manager of Plymouth Sky Sports, took the hour prior to the jump to prepare those who would skydive that day. Church set a few ground rules before he got into further detail.
“You have to have a good time,” Church said. “If not, you are bringing me down.”
Church explained that it would take 15 minutes for the single engine Cessna to reach 10,000 feet. Church joked with the divers slightly during the class.
“It goes a lot faster on the way down,” Church said. “You don’t think about it. You leave your brains at the door of the plane.”
After listening to Church and watching a short video on sky diving, Rose suited up and took off on the 15-minute accent to where she would jump with Church.
A crowd of family and friends sat in lawn chairs and stood outside the hangar near the airport runway, waiting to catch a glimpse of Rose on her way down.
After about 20 minutes, the crowd could see Rose on her way down and eventually landing in a field a few hundred feet away. The crowd cheered and clapped loudly as Rose landed. After she landed, she gave the crowd two thumbs up.
When she made it back to the hangar to take her jump suit off and socialize with her family and friends, she made a few jokes and did a little dance for the television camera.
Rose didn’t seem to be bothered at all by her sky dive experience. One of the first things she did when she got back to the hangar was take Church to see her birthday cake.
Church joked with Rose on their way to see the cake.
“You move a lot better without your harness on,” Church said.
Rose reflected back on her jump with Church.
“I wasn’t a bit scared,” she said. “I was calm as a cucumber.”
“It was pretty awesome, everyone should do it once,” Rose said. “One of the craziest things I have ever done.”
Rose explained how she had always wanted to go sky diving.
“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a parachute jumper,” she said. “When I turned 90, I had to do it.”
Rose then explained that the best part of sky diving was floating around above the earth.
After Rose jumped, Steve took his turn. Steve didn’t know until the week before that he would be jumping after his mother.
“She roped me into it,” Steve said. “This wasn’t on my bucket list.”
Steve had spent 32 years as a pharmacist at Brennan’s Pharmacy in Warsaw, prior to retirement. Eight years ago he moved to Albion and has been looking for something to have fun with.
“This put a little spice in my life,” Steve said. “I wasn’t counting on this much spice though.”
After Steve landed, Rose joked with her son about the experience.
“He didn’t want mother to get ahead of him,” Rose said.
