WATERVILLE, Maine — Love can make a person do crazy things.
In 2020, Eleanor Bilodeu lost the love of her life. In the 1960s, Gerard—or Gerry—Bilodeau served in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper, jumping out of planes.
The pair met just after his paratrooper days were over, but Eleanor said Gerry always wanted to jump one more time.
Beginning in 2018, Gerry was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, prostate cancer, then dementia. He died in 2020, never getting a chance to take his final jump.
On her husband's birthday—August 11—Eleanor, who's quite fond of being on the ground, drove to the Waterville airport to send a message of everlasting love.
In February, she got the idea to skydive in Gerry's honor. With much time to dwell on this daunting goal, she followed through and strapped into a harness at Vacationland Skydiving, next to the airport tarmac.
"I wanted to do something so dramatic and drastic that I think I'm gonna reach him wherever he is," Eleanor said while pointing to the sky.
Her loved ones came to support her first skydive, including Fr. Jack Fless, with whom the Bilodeaus worked and worshipped at his church.
"It takes courage to jump out of an airplane, and I think it takes courage to sort through our grief and love and find ways to keep that alive," Fless said as Eleanor prepared to board a small airplane.
Her tandem jump partner, Isaac, strapped her into her gear, checked it over, then brought her to the plane. A barefoot pilot smiled and fired up the engine, and the group was quickly off the ground.
At more than 10,500 feet, they opened the door, Isaac counted to two and then pushed the pair out into the partly cloudy sky.
They fell halfway down before Isaac pulled the ripcord, and a blue and white canopy snatched them upward and then gently glided them toward earth.
"This is for my husband, Gerard!" Eleanor yelled through the vicious wind.
They landed softly and detached. Eleanor hugged Isaac and thanked him, before walking back to her friends and family, still shaking with adrenaline.
"I'm trying to figure out why he liked that," she laughed about her husband's career.
Eleanor Bilodeau wanted to do something so drastic, it could reach the heavens.
"I think it did, I really do," she said. "And he's up there smiling."