85-year-old fulfills skydiving dream, honors late husband

SULLIVAN, Mo. (KTVI) -- Charlotte Moszczenski, 85, is a bit of a wildcard. But what she accomplished Friday is another story.

“I am ready. I am so ready,” Moszczenski said.

“She’s very determined, very hardheaded and there was no talking her out of it,” said Charlotte’s daughter, Lisa Reando.

Still, when Moszczenski's daughter Lisa learned her mom was going skydiving, she was a bit hesitant about the idea.

“I thought, why didn’t she do it when she was a lot younger and more able-bodied, but her reasoning makes sense,” Reando said.

Moszczenski's reasoning stemmed from her late husband, Walter.

“My husband was a paratrooper. 101^st Airborne. Screaming Eagles. I’ve just always wanted to do it. Now’s my time, kind of in memory of him,” Moszczenski said.

Walter Moszczenski was a founding member of the St. Louis Parachute Club and was 37 when he died.

“He would be proud of her, I am sure. And he would know better than to talk it out of her also,” Reando said.

Clearly young at heart, Moszczenski's Friday flight at SkyDive STL was made possible through the "Dream Come True Program" offered by "Cedarhurst of Tesson Heights," where she lives in south St. Louis County.

Its staff members were among the family and friends watching as Moszczenski prepared for takeoff.

“Sign my life away and listen to some instructions, which I’ve already forgotten. My buddy here said he’ll tell me what to do,” Moszczenski said.

With the engine roaring and her parachute packed, Moszczenski and her instructor, Noah, took off.

More than 10,000 feet in the sky, the time came to live and let fly. A few minutes later, Moszczenski and Noah approached earth for a graceful landing.

“What’d you think? Do that again?” asked her instructor, Noah.

“I’m ready. Let’s go back up. Yeah!” replied Moszczenski.

Back inside the hangar, there was a toast to Moszczenski and making dreams come true.

“She’s not inspiring me to skydive, but she does inspire you to take a look at the thing you want to do and need to do while you can,” Reando said.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me,” Moszczenski said.

And a chance to share in an experience that defined her late husband’s life.

“He’d say, ‘I can’t believe you did it, but he’d be proud,'” Moszczenski said.