This page contains some information about and images of my brother, Jamie. Jamie was born October 12, 1970. He graduated high school in Severna Park, Maryland in 1988. He trained and became a private pilot and moved to Miami to continue his training. He lived there until mid-1998. During his time in Miami, he learned to hang glide and eventually became an instructor. He moved to the Orlando area to instruct hang gliding and to help build up an air park.
On October 25, 1998, there was a student who wanted to make another trip late in the day. Jamie agreed to take him out. A witness saw the hang glider oscillating as it cleared the tree line. She saw Jamie release the glider from the tow plane and attempt to correct the oscillations. He was unable to do so and the glider crashed. The student was killed instantly. Jamie was airlifted to the hospital where he died a few hours later.
There are so many memories of Jamie from the 28 years and 2 weeks of his life, which have brought laughter and tears to us over the past few weeks. I would like to share a few even though I know that Jamie would be giving me his look and saying "Mom" in his stern tone.
With the third child, a parent finally relaxes enough to really enjoy their growth. When Jamie was about three, a neighbor told us that he had a surefire way to get a child to bed. You just ask, "Do you want juice or milk before you go to bed?" When the child chooses one, he also commits to going to bed. So his Dad asked Jamie, "Do you want milk or juice?" And Jamie replied, "That is not the way the world works, Dad; you may want me to go to bed, but I don’t want to go to bed."
Jamie was bright. I gave him my old computer because it had too little memory to install Windows. Jamie had Windows installed and running shortly after he got it. Later, he said that he would turn it on, go take his shower, and it would have booted up on his return.
Jamie was a "natural born athlete". I didn’t know what that meant until I saw him water-skiing with family and cousins at a lake. Everyone else struggled to get up for the first time, slalom, etc. Jamie joked and laughed with people in the boat and waited until last to ski. He got up easily, held the tow bar with one hand, adjusted his suit, etc. and made the process look easy and a little boring.
Jamie did not write many letters until the advent of e-mail. But one memorable letter, which was beautifully written, was about a parachute jump. I remember "It was utterly terrifying until we stabilized, and then it was very beautiful."
Jamie was thoughtful. He called at midnight one year to with me a "Happy Mother’s Day". He said "I made it in time; it’s 11:57." (He knew I wouldn’t get mad, as I loved phone calls from all my kids!) (Jamie did have a good sense of how far he could push!) A few phone calls ended when his phone card ran out of minutes.
Jamie was funny. He would wait and listen to conversations and then interject a dry, but witty line. I am sure that he has left each of you with a funny memory. He would have liked the rocket launch we saw in Orlando and appreciated the government doing that in his honor!
For Jamie, things were always very clear --- right or wrong, "cool" or stupid, black or white. But he had faith in the goodness of people. He would have been pleased with the goodness of strangers these past few weeks from airline gate agents to hotel staff to car rental people. And he would have been proud of how good his friends have been, those people with whom we share memories of Jamie in the past and those we are meeting for the first time.
I feel fortunate that last Spring Jamie asked me when I was coming to see him after I returned from a trip in which I saw his brothers. I replied that I would try to come for his birthday, October 12. I made that trip and saw Jamie at Groveland working, met Sarah who is a joy to me, met his other friends, and shared a trip to Bok Tower, dinner at the Red Wing and Mission Inn. It was a good visit. I left October 13.
Thank you all for sharing this celebration of Jamie’s life with us today!
And Jamie, May the Force be with you!