Carolyn grew up in the 1930s and ’40s as a dreamer whose hopes stretched beyond the confines of her parent’s farm. For this determined and brave intellectual, even the sky wasn’t the limit. From her small town of Plainfield, Illinois, Carolyn was determined to get an education and make her mark on the world.
When she learned that she could get funding for college by joining the United States Air Force, a path to her dreams began to take shape. Carolyn bravely enlisted in 1953—when women in uniform were a rarity—and her hard work paid off.
Of the 80 people in her unit, Carolyn was just one of five selected to attend weather training school. She soon began an exciting new meteorological position at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, home of the 557th Weather Wing.
Carolyn received a top-secret clearance and worked tirelessly, often putting in 12-hour days and pushing herself to learn everything she could. But she loved her work, which involved learning and training with weather balloons and manual data collection, an essential precursor to radar technology.
Watching the weather balloons float away, she told herself that someday, she would fly alongside them. However, after retirement, responsibilities and limited resources deferred her dream of flying, but not her determination.
“I guess I’m adventurous,” Carolyn said.
At age 91, with help from Wish of a Lifetime, Carolyn was finally able to make her lifelong dream of a hot-air balloon ride come true.
Midwest Ballooning Adventures took Carolyn and her companion for a hot-air balloon ride above the Chicago skyline on a warm, clear day. As Carolyn soared through the clouds, she looked down upon her journey, a trail blazed by her intellect, determination, and passion for the skies.
“We could see so far in the distance! I didn’t realize there were so many subdivisions. I could hear the dogs barking,” Carolyn recalled. “The pilot landed perfectly.”
Since her wish was granted, Carolyn remains motivated in encouraging others to pursue adventures of all kinds and live their dreams: “Go for it,” she said. “You only have one life to live.”
She also feels a renewed sense of hope about what she can experience in her later years. “This wish represents something for me,” Carolyn continued. “It was unthinkable at my age, and this sense of adventure is an opened door in my life.”
Want to see more stories like Carolyn’s?
