Flying wish comes true for 90-year-old

When she was asked what she wanted for Christmas, Gerri Egan did not hesitate.

“I’ve always wanted to fly a small plane,” said 90-year-old Gerri. “Ever since I saw the movie ‘Out of Africa’ and the scene where they are flying low over that beautiful landscape, I knew that was something I wanted to do.”

On Sunday, Oct. 26, Gerri got her present. Ron Price, a retired 29-year TWA captain, took her up in his 1949 Piper Vagabond at the Sonoma Skypark. Once they were in the air, he turned the plane over to Gerri. Together, they flew over Sonoma Valley, over Sebastopol, and as far south as Novato.

“She was great,” said Price. “We were up in the sky for half-an-hour and I think she had a good time. It was nice for me. I’m in my senior years as well and it’s great to see someone who never let age get in the way of her dreams. That’s what I want to do when I’m 90.”

Randy Sue Collins works as the dining site manager for the Council on Aging at

Bethlehem Tower in Santa Rosa. She provides the congregate lunch for the seniors Mondays through Fridays. The lunch is supplied by the Council on Aging of Sonoma County through the Meals on Wheels program. She said the Council has a Secret Santa program and each year they ask the seniors what they might like for Christmas.

“When I asked Gerry what she wanted … I was expecting to hear ‘a pair of slippers’,” said Collins. “But she didn’t hesitate and said she’d always wanted to fly a small plane.”

Collins contacted her friend Price, and soon the plan was in place. For Gerri, who was born in southern Minnesota when Calvin Coolidge was President, the flight was yet another event in a life spent experiencing new things and never giving up.

Her father took her to see Mount Rushmore while it was being created and only the faces of Washington and Jefferson were finished. She lived thorough the Great Depression, World War II, and in her life-time saw movies go from silent to talkies, saw radio become television, saw the birth of the nuclear age, man walk on the moon, and the Internet change the world’s ability to communicate.

At the age of 35, she moved west to San Francisco, met her husband, Thomas, and had two daughters. She was a social services employee of the city while he was a writer for the San Francisco Examiner. Living in her retirement community at Bethlehem Tower in Santa Rosa, Gerri recalled the tumult of living in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s.

“I loved San Francisco and it was very hard for me to leave,” said Gerri, who moved to Sonoma County eight years ago. “We lived in the North Beach area and we were a distinct minority. It was mostly Chinese, and it gave us a unique perspective on how it feels to be different.”

She said the bohemian lifestyle established by the Beat Generation and the hippies were “the scene” during that time.

“It was so funny. My husband used to wear a beret back then and every once in a while, some tourists would see him, take his picture and you could hear them say ‘there’s one’,” laughs Gerri.

She was in her early 50s when on a trip to Monterey, she saw divers swimming in the cold grey waters off Santa Cruz and fell for the idea of swimming with the sea life of the world. She was certified as a scuba diver in Monterey and in the years that followed would swim in areas as diverse as the Cayman Islands, Anchor Bay in Mendocino, and Monastery Beach in Carmel.

“It can be a lot more dangerous than people understand. The first time I tried it, I fell over coming out of the water and broke my thumb,” said Gerri. “But it’s an amazing world under the sea. My husband and I bought a trailer and would live at Anchor Bay, diving and camping for months. In the Caymans, the water was so clear and warm, you would see for miles below the surface – all sorts of colorful creatures.”

Gerri said her attitude about life is it’s never too late to start something new, learn something different, or keep dreaming about tomorrow. She has traveled the world, seen Mexico, Paris and most of all Italy. She says she fell in love with Italy and has been there eight times, enjoying everything from the wine and food, to the art and the train trips through the countryside.

“I like seeing new things,” said Gerri. “I want to do a lot of things. I’m studying Italian and I’m going back to Italy next September. I got certified as a scuba diver after my 50th birthday. It’s never too late to do the things you want to do and there’s no reason not to try.”

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.