She Flew

In July of 2012, mom was 75 years old.

She went zip lining.

We were in Twin Falls for a family reunion — right there in the Snake River Canyon, not far from where Evel Knievel once tried and famously failed to rocket across. A company had just opened a zip line course in the canyon, and someone in the group floated the idea.

Mom said yes.

She didn't have the right shoes. They duct taped them to her feet. She'd had multiple back surgeries. Her joints ached. None of that changed her answer.

She sat when she could to save her strength for the towers. She trudged from platform to platform in the canyon heat. She went through the training, got strapped into her harness, and waited her turn right alongside the youngsters.

Then she flew.

Every line. All of it.

There's a photo of her mid-zip — red helmet, teal top, bright pink shorts, duct-taped shoes — sailing through the air with a canyon full of sky behind her and the whole Snake River below.

She looks like she's exactly where she wanted to be.

She was the oldest or second oldest in the group that day. A couple of the other 70-somethings joined her. Because of course they did.

That was mom.

Not reckless. Not trying to prove anything.

Just genuinely unwilling to sit something out when there was still living to be done.