Grandmother Nelise Elam was 79 years old when I flew from Chicago to Knox in Northern Indiana and took her up for her first airplane ride.
She lived across the street from the grass runway where I landed in 1960. The runway has since been replaced with a shopping center and modern school buildings. A paved Knox airfield now lies outside town.
I had flown my Cessna 182 there to visit relatives after Maxine and I flew to a conference of women journalists in Chicago. Cousin Alton and his wife Louise flew back to Chicago with me.
Louise later told me she was cringing in the backseat. I let Alt operate the co-pilot steering wheel some of the flight. Then we landed on the ‘little’ paved strip that bordered Lake Michigan.
On the other hand, her first flight didn’t scare my grandmother. She sat in the copilot’s right seat while I flew her over nearby Bass Lake, farms and soybean fields.
When we landed, a son-in-law joked, “Guess that’s about as close to heaven as you’re going to get. How was the flight, Nelise?”
Grandmother answered, “If I had known how much I would enjoy it, I would have been up there a lot sooner.” And we’re sure she’s there now.
Photo from Colleen Drews collection
