Wade produced another "tribute" video for Mom just a few days before she died. Many of the photos he used were taken at the Hospice of Kitsap County Care Center (these people are truly saints). Wade and his Grandma had a special bond, and these videos were a way for him to say, again, "I love you."
Y'all know Ma Bueller was a motorcycle rider. Most of you don't know, however, that Mom flew airplanes, too.
She earned her private pilot license in 1978, and later fulfilled one of her dreams by taking her father (my Grampa Wade, also a pilot in his younger days), and her #2 son (my brother Doug, an active pilot), up for a flight. She was 54 years young at the time, and this was quite a proud occasion for her.
MaB's "Celebration of Life" was held at Doug and Sandy's home in Poulsbo, Washington on November 6th, 2011. It had been suggested by one of Doug's formation flying buddies that they fly a "Missing Mom" formation over the house during the celebration, with Doug flying in slot three, the "missing man" position. I'll let Doug take it from here:
"The weather forecast was gloomy for that day, Sunday the 6th. There was some serious concern whether the flight would happen at all. After all, we had airplanes (and pilots) coming from Everett, Lake Stevens, Bremerton, and Gig Harbor. The weather had to be good enough to fly three passes, the "Missing Mom" formation, and then get back to their various home bases. It turned out to be a beautiful day; seems that Mom wanted to hear four noisy airplanes overhead in close formation celebrating her life.
"One more twist.....my airplane was flying lead.......without me. No, not a sophisticated autopilot, just a great friend. He is the leader of our formation flying team and suggested that I fly slot 3 (missing man). When I explained that I didn't want to be away from the family for the length of time it would take to drive to the airport, brief the flight, fly the formation, debrief the flight, and drive home, we decided not to do the flight. I called him the following day and suggested that he fly my airplane as lead pilot so that I could stay with family and friends on the ground. He agreed. They all did a great job. Jim Posner flew lead in N1000T, Kari Seppanen flew slot 2 in N909RC, Ken VanWinkle flew slot 3 (missing man) in N35S, and Rich Jones in slot 4 with N8370D. The model years are 1957, 1969, 1964 and 1958, respectively.
"I'm pretty sure that we put a smile on Mom's face."
I bet you did.
Me 'n D are thankful for many things today, especially family and friends. We hope you all have a happy and joyous Thanksgiving.
Look up the definition of "Cool Mom" in the dictionary, garonteeed you'll see Ma Bueller's picture there.
Thanks for sharing, Jerry- my sis, stepdad and I spent Thursday remembering my mom- it just so happened that the anniversary of her passing (3 years ago) fell on Thanksgiving this year.
Once upon a time, my mom scared me to death when she informed me that she and my stepdad would be carrying a moped on their motorhome when they were going camping, and that she would be riding it... at that time I still vividly remember an incident many years earlier when she and I went riding bicycles around the neighborhood and she couldn't make a simple right-hand turn...
Maybe your mom can teach mine how to ride now- given that they are angels now, no need to worry about flying.
