He Had Me At Takeoff!

The recent crash plane crash in Alaska that Killed Sen. Ted Stevens made me reflect on all the years Jimmy has flown. Over time, I would read short articles in the newspaper about a small plane crashing. I would always hold my breath until I saw the pilot’s name and a small inward sigh would escape when I did not see Jim Fike listed.

Let me say that I never feared flying with Jim. He was without doubt one of the safest pilots I have had the pleasure to fly with. He was meticulous about flying. He would tell me that if something happened while we were airborne, the best thing he could do was continuing to fly. He explained that by attempting to remedy the situation he would be distracted from keeping the plane aloft. Hmmm…So, if the plane is on fire???? Well, we had a few bumpy rides, but never any situations that left me in fear of an unplanned, rapid descent.

My phone messages both on the home line and cell ended with, “If this is Jim, I love you”. I always explained that if something tragic happened to Jim, I knew that he would try to call me and I would hate to think we did not connect on the call. So, if that happened, the last thing he would hear from me was my declaration of love for him.

My dear friend Michelle wrote a lovely tribute on Jim’s legacy.com page when Jim passed and this is one small piece of what she wrote. 

Judi is a tough and impeccable judge of character, and the sheer depth of love she expressed for Jim was testament to the caliber of man he was. He touched her life, and she never hesitated to show it. I always smiled when I listened to her voicemail greetings, because she always ended them with, "Jim, if this is you, I love you with all my heart". Any person making such an impact on a woman like Judi - a woman who sees through the veils people put up so she can look into their hearts - that person is definitely someone special.

I suppose my message made an impact on Michelle too.

I loved flying in the right seat as Jim’s co-pilot. I could dial in the squawk and change the radio frequencies so that he could concentrate on what he did best, fly that plane. When Jim and I started dating again in 2001, I flew commercial to Dulles Airport and Jim flew the King Air from Charlottesville to pick me up. Yes, I did feel special! Our plane was small enough that the tower allowed us to wind up the runway between the heavies and take off without the long wait.  I think it helped too that Jim had friends in the tower.

The dashboard of the plane is peppered with all sorts of dials, altimeters, radios, radar, and GPS. The dash is very high and the windshield is actually small in size. We were cruising to Charlottesville and I kept stretching in my seat to look out of the front window. Jim finally asked me what I was doing and I said just that, “Looking out the window”. In his crazy manner he asked me if I was looking for a Starbucks to pull into. I suddenly realized that there should be NOTHING out the front window, and if there was, we were in deep poop.  Then I glanced at Jim sort of scrunched in his seat watching all the dials and twisting a little knob here and there to keep us on course to Charlottesville. I still laugh at myself today about that.

While we were dating, Jim would fly to Tampa anytime the plane was not in use by a client. There is a small Fixed Base Operation (FBO) about 20 minutes from the Tampa house. And it was about 10 minutes from my office. On the occasions Jim would be flying down, the day seemed to stretch on indefinitely. There I was again, like a child jumping up and down waiting for Jim to land.

Jim would call as soon as he touched down, or if Lee, our co-pilot came along for the trip, I’d get a call when they had descended to about 3,000 feet and were preparing to land. In that time frame, I could often get to the airport from my office to see Jim taxi in.  I loved it. I couldn’t wait for him to open the door and step onto the tarmac. He always took my breath away.

Some of my fondest memories are the quick trips we took to the to the Keys. Jim loved Key West! Our plans were to retire to Islamorada. I have flown with Jim over the years, but they were short flights at very low altitude from Manassas Airport, not the long trips in the Cessna cruising along at 20,000 feet.

On many occasions we took friends along for our Key West Trips. But, the first trip we took together was the most memorable. I’m jumping ahead here, but will thread this back together at a later time. Jim flew to Tampa to attend my niece Michelle’s graduation from USF and to then take me to the Keys for a vacation.

I picked him of at the FBO and after a quick trip to my house to unload his gear, shower and change; we were off to dinner with my sister Sue, her husband and their daughters. Mom and her “boyfriend” (later her husband) Phil were at dinner as well. Mom did not know that I’d started dating Jim again and Jim said he wanted to surprise her that night.

Let me paint a small picture here. I had separated from my husband Chuck in March 2001 and this was mid-June the same year. Things had gotten pretty crazy with Jim and me in that short time frame. And, no we had not been having an affair.

Jim kept telling me he wanted to marry me and I shrugged it off. I was on such and emotional roller coaster with the divorce proceedings and Jim’s crazy advances that I was in no state to discuss marriage. To put the discussion to rest, I told Jim to ask mom for my hand. I knew she’d say no and that would be the end of it.

We got to the restaurant and mom took one look at Jim and said, “Jim Fike, what are you doing here?” He told her he had come to Tampa to speak to her. With that out of the way we continued to order dinner and all the typical small talk ensued. Desert was being served and Jim moved down to the end of the long table to chat with mom. Chat? He started some long winding conversation that ended with, “and Thelma, I’d like to marry Judi and I wanted to ask your permission.”

I spit out my coffee and for the first time in my life I was speechless. He WAS serious. My stomach froze and Sue and I shared some sort of weird look. He kept looking at me and winking and his crooked little grin was stretched from ear to ear. Truly, I thought he was just pulling mom’s leg and knowing my mom so well, I knew she would fire back with some appropriate remark about him being out of his mind.

Well, with mom being madly in Love with Phil she must have had a weak moment, because she said, “Nothing would make me happier. You will be good for Judi and I never could stand Chuck.” Holy I’ll be damned. Mom doesn’t drink, but I figured someone had slipped her a little something. Sue and I were picking our chins off the table, laughing and shaking our heads. What had just happened? I felt a shifting of the earth. Was Jim for real? Yes, it’s true, I had started to have strong feelings for him again: a different feeling from those of 20+ years ago…was he serious?

I was giving him the HUH look? Sue and Charlie were paying the check and hustling all of us to the University so we would not be late for graduation. Jim grabbed my had and in the most serious tone told me he was going to marry me and that since he had mom’s permission there was nothing to prevent our marriage. I believe I stuttered out something to the effect that he’d not proposed to me and I had the final say.

Michelle’s graduation was fun and Sue and I cried to see Sue’s oldest daughter graduate in her BSN program. My mind was reeling. I knew Jim so well that I knew he was damn serious about getting married. I was trying to twist my mind around that. We spent a few days relaxing in Tampa and then headed to the Keys for a long vacation. I avoided all discussions of marriage. Maybe I thought he’d forget or just tell me it was a joke.

Jim flew us to Ft. Lauderdale where we spent one night and visited with some of his old friends. The next morning, we loaded up a convertible Mustang he’d rented and headed to Islamorada. I drove and Jim controlled the CD’s. There seemed to be a ton of sentimental songs playing as we headed south.

I was smitten…I was also a mess…I was going through a pretty ugly divorce and I didn’t think I was in any position to be wrapped up with Jim. He was trouble in my 20’s and was definitely trouble for me in my 40’s. I don’t know when I decided to say eff it and roll with the flow, but at some point during the drive I figured I might as well enjoy myself and the devil be damned.

We spent several days in Islamorada drinking rum punches at Lorelei’s Cabana Bar and dancing on the dock at sunset. It WAS romantic. Jim was trying to make the vacation as special as possible. He succeeded. We would tool around in the green Mustang all day and wind up back at the hotel in time for sunset. One memorable evening we wound up at a strip club. That itself is a stand-alone story.

We finally headed to Key West. Jim had been traveling to Key West for years and he was excited to take me to his favorite places and to discover some new places for us. We went to all the tourist hot spots, Hemingway’s house, the Southernmost Point, Sloppy Joe’s and Mallory Square. We hit them all and then found a cute restaurant in a B&B. We got all dolled up for dinner and that night in a very serious tone, Jim did propose to me with a litany of reasons why we should get married.

He explained that if we’d married when we first met, we would have divorced and wound up hating each other and I’d probably have a few children that would hate him as well. Good point, I’ll concede on that point. He said that he always kept in touch because he knew one day we would both be single at the same time, and at that point in our lives WE should be married. He was not going to let the opportunity pass.

He said that when he’d visited Chuck and me in Tampa a few years earlier he knew we were headed for a divorce and he had been waiting to step in at the point we did divorce. He laid out the plus and minuses of being married to him. He also told me that his “running days” were over. He told me I’d never have to worry that he would run around on me. He told me he loved me the most. Truly, I just listened, I was still in shock, but I did love Jim. It was easy to fall into the trance that the trip settled on me. I’d loved him a very long time ago. He was just as handsome that summer, far more mature and I knew he was absolutely sincere about all that he was saying. He asked me to marry him and I said yes.

We left the restaurant and Jim had Anita Baker playing in the car. We were cruising down Duval Street and I pulled the car up on the curb and Jim and I got out and danced in the moonlight. It was one of the happiest moments in my life. I knew that I’d made the right decision to accept Jim’s proposal. I never questioned it after that night.

I always told friends that the Lord sent Jim to me to help me through one of the most difficult periods of my life. How self-centered of me. It was many years later when Jimmy was diagnosed with cancer that I realized it had been all about him the entire time.

Wow, this started out as a story about flying with Jim and took a winding path here. Oh well, it was a good trip down memory lane! So, I know you are scratching your heads trying to figure out how Jim got into the picture so soon after my separation from Chuck…that dear readers is another long story….