Posted on 04/18/2009 8:31:03 PM PDT by JoeProBono
Two years ago, Fay Andrews was in so much pain from West Nile virus that she wanted to die.
On Saturday, a recovered Andrews celebrated her 70th birthday by jumping from a plane, along with her grandson, grandnephews, grandniece and a friend. She turns 70 today.
Thirty family members and friends gathered at the Ogden-Hinckley Airport to watch the group jump from a Cessna 208. All the jumpers were accompanied by instructors for the descent.
Cody Egan, 21, said when his grandmother telephoned him, he was thinking he would be invited to a relaxing cruise.
"I'm more afraid of this than she is," he said before the jump. "But when your grandmother asks, it's pretty hard to say no."
Family friend Patsy Kelly said of Andrews: "It's not that she likes to live on the edge, it's just that she loves to live. She enjoys people, places and things, and if there is a way, she's going to get to that new place."
Before her illness, Andrews, a mother of four, who has 11 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren, had gone on several hot air balloon rides, one of which was over an African desert. She also has gone parasailing in Mexico, crossed the Panama Canal on a sailboat, rafted the Grand Canyon and took a helicopter ride over the Denali Mountains in Alaska.
"When I was a little girl, somewhere in the back of my mind I wanted to jump from an airplane," said Andrews of her Advertisement latest adventure. "The idea must have stuck there."
That, and watching "The Bucket List," a movie about two terminally ill men who make a list of things they wanted to do before they kick the bucket, kept the idea alive.
Andrews' own odyssey began in the fall or 2007 when she was bitten by a mosquito in the backyard of her Midvale home. Her flu-like symptoms turned to unbearable headaches and body aches. She spent five days in the hospital and another month in rehabilitation, learning to walk and use her right arm.
About one in 150 people infected with the virus will develop severe illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Severe symptoms can include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, disorientation, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss and paralysis.
"I was in so much misery that I wanted to die," she said. "Then a friend pushed me and I decided that I was going to start living. I did everything I could to get better, including positive affirmations. I told myself over and over, 'Yes I can,' 'I can get healthy,' and 'I am healthy.' "
Andrews grew up in Orem, attended Brigham Young University "and got married because that's what girls were supposed to do." She was a homemaker until a divorce prompted her to find outside work. Through the years, she has landed jobs as a lunch worker, bookkeeper, catering services director, trade school teacher and an office manager.
Her longtime penchant for travel was aided by a trust fund her parents had set up for her and her three sisters.
"My sisters and I were able to do a lot of traveling. Maybe it was because we were stuck in Utah for so many years," she laughed. "We just had to get out."
After a safe landing at the airport, Andrews was greeted by cheers.
"It was wonderful," she told well-wishers. "You should try it."
God bless her. I can’t wait to see President Bush I do it again! :-)
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