‘I had no fear whatsoever’: Grandmother spends 90th birthday jumping out of an airplane

PHOENIX (KNXV) – A grandmother in Arizona is living life to the fullest.

Leah Dickey recently turned 90 years old. To celebrate, she jumped out of an airplane.

“I can’t describe the thrill of it all,” she said.

Dickey said she spent her last two birthdays pulling similar stunts.

“Last year, I went up in a glider for that birthday, the year before a zipline,” she said. “And so I’ve tried a lot of things … and river rafting.”

Dickey and her sister were raised on a farm in southern Minnesota. She said the two created a bond over a bucket list of things to do in their lifetime.

“And one of them was to jump out of an airplane,” Dickey said.

She made the appointment to do just that with gusto when she turned 90.

“You know, that was a strange thing because I had no fear whatsoever,” she said.

Dickey’s great-granddaughter went with her as the two flew over Eloy, Arizona.

The birthday girl went first.

“I just said, ‘Take care of me, God’ before I jumped,” she said.

Dickey said, on the way down, the jump instructor told her to make a heart with her hands in the air, but she was unable to do so due to the pressure of the wind on their fall.

“It was a piece of cake after the chute opened,” Dickey said.

The grandmother said the view was breathtaking.

“When I was just flying up there like a bird, I could see everything below,” she said. “It was beautiful and it’s so green and gorgeous as Arizona always is.”

After she landed, Dickey was greeted by her friends and family to help ring in a new decade of joy.

“So, I’ve already decided I’m going back next year because my granddaughter, great-granddaughter, jumped with me and I promised her, I’d go back with her next year,” she said.

With age comes wisdom, and Dickey has some words of wisdom for those younger than her.

“I would say try it, try everything, get out there and live and do it,” she said.

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