A Lady Lake mom recalls her first (and only) skydiving adventure.

It was a beautiful day in 2005, my husband was working, and I had decided to go over to DeLand to a skydiving facility with a few friends. I was pretty much going to watch because I knew my husband, Judd, wouldn’t want me to skydive. 

As I watched one of my friends do it, I thought, “Oh my gosh. That is so awesome!” And I talked myself into it, signed up for it, got geared up. I went up in the plane, like 13,500 feet in the air. The guy who was a tandem instructor was on my back. He told me before we jumped that he would tap my shoulder when it was time to hold my arms out like we were flying. 

When we got to the edge of the plane, I looked down and thought, “I can’t believe I am doing this.” But I just went for it, and we started doing all of these flips in the air. It was so awesome and beautiful. Then, when the instructor tapped my shoulder, I knew it was my cue. But the wind gust was so powerful, it blew my arms back (so) super-fast that my left shoulder popped completely out of socket when we were freefalling, and I was in so much pain.

My husband had to meet me at The Villages Regional Hospital, and (the doctors) had to put me asleep to put the (shoulder) back in. Needless to say, it was my first skydiving experience and my last!