Skydiving Among Angels

Mom, what do you think about me taking Dad skydiving when he comes down for my Winging ceremony? Do you think he’ll be able to do the landing then?” My son asked me over the phone.

“I’m not sure Jesse. He’s still pretty sore, but we still have a month yet. Maybe by then his back will be able to take it OK,” I said optimistically.

Jesse wanted to share with his dad an experience they both had done, but never together. It would be a perfect way to celebrate the weekend of our son receiving his pilot wings in the United States Air Force, to skydive with his dad. But, the obstacle preventing it was a broken back his dad had suffered 2 months earlier in an ATV accident. The four-wheeler he was driving flipped over on top of him as we helped friends clear trees, landing on top of him, breaking two vertebrae, and compressing his spine.

Jesse and I waited to see the progress in his Dad’s recovery as the days grew closer. It saddened me to see Scott’s progress move so slowly. Jesse’s chance of sharing this exhilarating gift with his dad was slipping away.

“So Mom, what should we do? We only have two weeks now,” Jesse said.

“Well Jesse, I know you want to surprise him, but I think we’re going to have to ask him if he thinks he can handle it,” I said, hating to be the one to voice what we both were thinking.

I was afraid Jesse wasn’t going to be given the chance to share with his dad what he had learned in his skydiving adventures. Or share an adrenaline rush of jumping out of the plane at twelve thousand feet and traveling 120 mph.

“I’m sorry Jesse, it’s not going to work for me,” Jesse’s dad , Scott, said with a saddened heart.

It was the thought that counted. But, it would be all that Scott would get. There were no second chances give...

... middle of paper ...

...other space and time. Within seconds, the softness of sound and air ripples around your hair and skin. The essence of heaven floats around you as you fly above the eagles, joining their realm of unending beauty into the horizon. Jesse’s soul fills our hearts in this peaceful place of reverence. .

Our parachute symbolizes a vibrantly colored birthday balloon and reflecting Jesse’s personality in life and also in spirit, the parachutes increasing in number every year and filling the sky with more and more celebration. The color brightens the sky and brings light into our once empty hearts. It fills it with memories, emotions, pictures, and laughter. Scott, Krystine and I have been given our second chance in a way we never dreamed of. Blessed with warmth and friendship of family and friends, and luckily some willing to enjoy an adrenaline rush and leap of faith too.