Seniors take flight over Glacier

Three lucky senior citizens at Columbia Falls’ BeeHive Assisted Living homes were treated to an aerial adventure last week to check an item off their bucket lists.

Bill Thomas, Rita Ranes and Joyce Steele were part of a group which got to fly over Glacier National Park in a helicopter.

Julia Wiebelhaus, the owner and administrator of the Columbia Falls BeeHive said the experience was a lucky one.

“Every year the BeeHive corporation — we’re franchised — selects a state and tells us to select some residents who have a bucket list item,” she said. “We had three in the Flathead and two down in Missoula.”

The “bucket list” is a well-known colloquial term for things people want to do before they “kick the bucket,” or shuffle off their mortal coil, or push up daisies. It’s a list of things to do before death.

One of the requests was to fly over a national park in a helicopter. Yellowstone was the first choice, but Glacier proved to be a fantastic alternative.

“Boy the scenery was nice,” Thomas said. “That was the first time I’ve ever been in a helicopter. There were seven of us in there, it was crowded.”

Thomas, 91, was a U.S. Navy pilot in World War Two. It had been a long time since he was up in the air. This time, instead of searching for moonlight glinting off Japanese submarines, he got to see mountain goats near the Alberta border.

Ranes, 90, enjoyed the ride, but admits she had something else on her mind for a bucket list.

“It was exciting, something I had looked forward to for a long time,” she said. “I’ve been looking at those mountains for 30 years, it was great to finally see them from the top. But when can I go skydiving?”

Ranes wanted to jump from a plane for her bucket list, but couldn’t find a company who would let her do it. After all, when a completely deaf woman with an oxygen tank wants to jump from a plane, it complicates things, Wiebelhaus said.

“I’ve still got lots of things I want to do,” Ranes said, despite the setback. “Whatever comes up, I’m game for it.”

That was the attitude Steele had as well. Steele, 88, is a Columbia Falls native.

“I was a little scared. But it don’t hurt you to be scared once in a while,” she said. “It was quite the experience.”

During the flight, Steele made sure to keep an eye out for safe places the helicopter could crash, should it come to that.

Thomas, who recalls one engine of his twin-engine naval reconnaissance plane cutting out 300 miles from land in the South Pacific during the war, was less concerned.

“The pilot was real good,” he said. “He pointed out the mountains by name.”

Thomas has one big thing left on his bucket list: Visit the World War Two Memorial in Washington D.C. For Steele? She’d like to go to Hawaii.

And of course Ranes is still waiting for a chance to skydive.

“Let’s do it,” she said. “Let’s go.”

Reporter Ryan Murray can be reached at 758-4436 or rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.