“Before he passes, he wanted to feel a takeoff,” said Stephanie Crase, senior administrator for Advanced Home Health and Hospice.
The hospice staff has been granting bucket list wishes for 10 years, allowing patients to fulfill some dreams in their final days.
They’ve ranged from the simple to the elaborate.
“Some of them just want to go to Walmart. We’ve had patients have bubble baths,” said Crase. Other wishes have included a trip to a NASCAR race and even a wedding. “We just want to make their last days quality days.”
They call them “Perfect Days” or “Make it Matter Days” and are organized by hospice staff and leadership.
Whitehead had expressed to one of his hospice nurses that he never felt he was able to live life to the fullest, and that his wish was to ride in an airplane just once.
Through a series of connections and phone calls, the hospice staff found pilot and Warren County Airport Board member Ken Ross, who was more than happy to share his love of flying with Whitehead.
“I’ll give about everybody a ride if they come up and ask,” Ross said.
Thursday’s flight will be far from the first time Ross has taken to the air for a good cause.
Throughout the 1990s, he and other area pilots held “Senior Days” at the airport where they would set up tables, have cookouts, and invite senior citizens - many of whom had military experience - to enjoy an afternoon in and around the planes.
The Senior Days were as much a thrill for Ross as they were for the guests.
On one occasion, Ross said, he had the chance to talk to a World War II veteran. It was a moving experience for both of them.
“You could just see, in his mind, he was right back in his teenage years flying that bomber,” Ross said.
Ross, 75, can relate to the wish of being able to fly.
He was bitten by the airplane bug on New Year’s Eve 1992 when when he took a flight in a small plane for the first time.
“I liked it so much I just kept on going,” he said.
After a 42-year career driving trucks, Ross earned his pilot’s license and became a flight instructor.
His passion has taken him to 35 states by air including Alaska.
He said one of his biggest thrills now is watching some of his former students make careers in sky, including two who fly jets for the U.S. Air Force.
Ross is covering the cost of Thursday’s flight with Whitehead, including time, the Cessna 182 they’ll be riding in, and fuel.
He doesn’t like to talk about that part, preferring to focus on providing a n incredible experience.
“It’s no big deal. It’s for a good cause,” Ross said. “I just hope the weather cooperates.”
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