Grandmother sets herself skydiving challenge following husband's death
By Jo Abi|
Grandmother Kim Knor has set herself the challenge of completing 1,000 skydives. If she completes the challenge, she will earn her Golden Wings.
Her renewed passion for the sport was triggered by her husband's death as a way to deal with her grie?f.
"I have a choice of watching TV or sitting in front of a computer, or going out and jumping and travelling across the country," Knor told The Longmont Daily Times-Call.
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Kim said her love of the sky began when she was young.?
"Did you ever lay on the ground and just watch birds flying around and watch how they stop and how they go and catch the wind currents? That's what I used to do," she told WZZM of her love of the sky.
She then began accompanying her uncle, who was a regular skydiver, ?and decided to try it for herself when she was 15.
Her uncle had guided her as far as competing in the US Women's Parachute Team in 1962 where she won gold.
Kim and her late husband bonded over their love of sky diving in their younger years. The Denver, US resident and husband had learned the sport during World War II and Kim had been taught how to skydive by her uncle when she was just five.
But when her late husband had an accident while testing parachutes, she promised him she wouldn't skydive again.
That is until his death when, struggling with her grief, Kim, 84 decide to take up the sport again, setting herself the lofty goal of 1,000 jumps.?
'My husband died and the kids were growing up and then the grandkids started coming and [after 37 years] I started jumping again," Kim told Colorado CBS station KCNC-TV
It didn't take much for Kim to remember everything she had learned.
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Kim has now completed 600 jumps since taking up the sport again and when she achieves 1,000, she will have earned her Gold Wings from the US Parachute association.
Since the beginning of June, she's dived in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri and Nebraska. She plans to continue west to jump into Utah, Arizona and California.
And her renewed love of skydiving has brought her closer to her remaining family, with her youngest grandson John recently joining her at Mile-Hi Skydiving Centre for his first jump.
"Today's jump is exciting because I'm taking my youngest grandson is taking his first jump," she said ahead of the experience.
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?Another of Kim's grandchildren, Miller Crone, who also shares her love of skydiving, described the sport as "almost a bit of a rite of passage" in their family.
'My sister and my cousins and I always talk about who's jumping next, who's jumping again, and who's making their first jump," he explained.
Kim said she now lives for jumping.
She told KCNC-TV: "Anytime life gets too difficult or too sad just go make a jump and then everything's good."
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She is hoping other senior women to follow in her footsteps, telling The Longmont Daily Times-Call: "I am encouraging them to at least go out and try. And if it's your thing, you might end up getting a job at a drop zone and be around these people all the time.
"At most drop zones, everybody's on a high, because they're so happy to go up and jump."
Her grandson Miller spoke of his admiration for his grandmother.
"If it's important to you, you can find a way to do the things that you want to do at any point in your life," he told The Longmont Daily Times-Call "And I think that she's a living testament to that."?
