Leah Dickey chooses to celebrate each birthday like there's no tomorrow.
"Last year I went up in a glider for that birthday. Year before, zipline,” Dickey said. “I've tried a lot of things; and then river rafting.”
Dickey and her sister were raised on a farm in southern Minnesota.
"We had a bucket list of all the things we wanted to do in our life and one of them was to jump out of an airplane,” Dickey smiled. “So, the years went by, like 50 years to be exact. And she said, ‘I don't think I'm going to do that.' And I said, ‘Well, I'm going to.'"
With gusto, the appointment was booked for her 90th birthday. Dickey was joined by her great-granddaughter. The flight went over Eloy, Arizona, with Dickey jumping first.
"I just said, ‘Take care of me, God,' before I jumped,” Dickey said.
She recalled what her instructor said in the moment: “’I want you to put your knee right there on the ground, and then we're just going to fall out of the airplane.' And we did,” Dickey laughed.
"Then he said, ‘Well, why don't you try to make a heart with your hands.' Well, I couldn't because the pressure and the wind and, oh, we were going, I don't know, 100 miles an hour, probably dropping at that point before the chute opens. And then it was a piece of cake after the chute opened.”
Her infectious smile could likely be seen for miles.
“When I was just flying up there like a bird, I could see everything,” Dickey said. "It was beautiful. It was so green and gorgeous as Arizona always is.”
Windblown after her landing, Dickey was greeted by friends and family to ring in a new decade of joy.
"I've already decided that I'm going back next year because my great-granddaughter jumped with me. And I promised her I'd go back too for next year,” Dickey says.