HAZLE TOWNSHIP, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — A Bradford County woman is proving that age is merely a number. At 101 years old, the Le Raysville woman leaped from an airplane Sunday afternoon, and it was far from her first time.
101-year-old Clara White descended from high above Hazleton Regional Airport Sunday afternoon, sharing this skydive with someone close to her, someone a fraction of her age.
"It was awesome, I love coming and doing it with Nan," Skydiver Charles Heddings said.
"This is my great-grandson. We had a great time. It was a great flight, good time, beautiful day! Couldn't ask for a better day," White added.
Once is not enough for this seasoned skydiver. She figures she has taken this literal leap of faith more than a dozen times in her lifetime.
If you ask her why she keeps jumping, she will tell you the following:
"Oh, just. I can't explain it, it's exhilarating. " Charles stated.
"It's just thrilling. That's all there is to it. It's just a thrill," White continued.
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Several loved ones watched White do what she first did more than two decades ago when she was 80.
What did they think then when she told them she wanted to free-fall from a plane?
"She's crazy, but we already knew that. That's agreed," White's Granddaughter Lisa Bryan laughed.
White's daughter, Norma, booked that first skydive two decades ago, and this one now, and that's not all.
"Well, I did it with her one year, and I like to do crazy stuff, and so does she?" Norma Moore, White's daughter, said.
"I'm just not jumping," Bryan added.
That's okay, because there is someone in the family who is willing to parachute jump, someone who is proof that there is no age limit when it comes to adventure.
"If I'm here at 102, I'm going to go again. Yes, I am. Yeah, I'll make an appointment," White explained.
White's latest jump was a few years in the making.
First, the pandemic put it on hold, and then she needed to recover from cornea transplant surgery.
Here's hoping she gets to make another jump next year.
