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Sandy will be greatly missed at Skydive the Point as well as around the country. She had an amazing energy level and worked at helping skydivers improve their skills regardless of their experience level. Sandy was killed on July 19, 1998 during the 300-Way world record attempts at Skydive Chicago. She was knocked unconscious in a freefall collision and never opened her parachute. She had a helmet and chose not to wear an AAD. |
Memorial Jumps
Abbotsford Paracenter-Abbotsford, BC
Adrenalin Adventures-Wallace, NC
Advanced Aerosports-Photo is in! A "Y"
Alabama Skydiving
Arkansas Air Sports-Photo is in!
Blue Sky Ranch-Gardiner, NY
Carolina Sky Sports-Louisburg, NC
Chicagoland Skydiving-Hinckley, ILL-Photo is in!
Don Nuckols
Eastern Province Skydivers-Grahamstown, South Africa
Flying Tigers Sport Parachute Center-Clemson, SC-Photo is in!
Hartwood Paracenter-Hartwood, VA
Kelowna, BC
Paradise Parachute Center
Perris Valley-Perris, CA-Photo is in!
Raeford Parachute Center-Raeford, NC-Photo is in! A nice "N"
Rebecca Welch-Chair Jump
Rochester Skydiving
Center-Rochester, NY
Skydance Skydiving-Photo is in! A perfect "S"
Skydive Arizona-Eloy AZ-Photo is in! A 14 way "A"
Skydive Atlanta-Thomaston, GA-Photos are in! An "S" and an "N".
Skydive Delmarva-Laurel, DE
Skydive Elsinore-Lake Elsinore, CA-Photo is in!
Skydive Greene County-Xenia, OH-Photo is in!
Skydive Idaho
Skydive Indiana-Photo is in!
Skydive Lebanon-Lebanon, Maine-Photos are in! A giant zipper 'Y"!
Skydive Monroe-Monroe, GA-Photos
are in!
Skydive Monterey Bay-Monterey Bay, CA-Photos are in!
Skydive Orange-Orange, VA
Skydive Pepperell-Pepperell, MA
Skydive The Point-West Point, VA-Photos
are in! S-A-N-D-Y!
Skydive Twin Cities-Baldwin, WI
Skydive Virginia-Louisa, VA
Skydog Skydiving
Somewhere In New Zealand
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NOTE: This is a description of Sandy's service July 23, 1998 by JJ Johnson.
Sandy was laid to rest yesterday afternoon in a family plot in the Virginia countryside, adjacent to the small church where she was baptized as a child. Before the funeral, small white clouds decorated a light blue Virginia sky as cars from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Florida and beyond poured into the old redbrick church's parking lot. Soon, the lot was full and church directors were guiding cars behind the church, beside a playground or where ever there was an empty patch of ground. Before long....there was no empty ground....only a sea of people coming to say goodbye. The service was brief...just a little over 30 minutes. During that time Sandy was remembered as a lover of life and woman of tremendous energy. Guests filled the church to capacity, overflow watched and listened to the service in several adjacent rooms via closed circuit television. Following the service, the family laid Sandy's beautiful yet simple wooden coffin to rest in a private ceremony, while guests waited inside, remembering Sandy with a display of photographs. The photo's ranged from her early childhood, high school cheerleading and her wedding to Brad, up to recent photos of her with her family and skydiving friends. The photos of Sandy's body coming home from Chicago were also displayed...right next to a photo or her and Hannah playing, and a small painting of Jesus. Soon people began to trickle out of the church's front door. Most watched from afar as little Hannah stood amid the sea of flowers adorning her mother's gravesite....arranging them just so....picking out the pussy willows and giving them to the other children to play with. I listened to her try to explain to a younger child that, "My mom was killed and now she's buried under all these flowers." She said it so matter-of-factly that I'm not sure if it has sunk in yet. I asked Hannah if she would pick out a one of her mother's flowers to send back to Chicago for the people who couldn't come....by the time you read this, the pink and white carnation should be there. By 4pm, we could hear thunder in the far off distance....and skies to the south were growing dark. The small white clouds that greeted us when we went into the church, had stretched skyward to the upper limits of the atmosphere. As friends hugged their good-byes and vowed to stop meeting like this, a tired Cessna 182 jump plane came in low out of the blackening sky, and dipped a wing to Sandy's final home.
JJ Johnson D-18218 West Point, VA |
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