'A lot of people just think you're crazy'

CLARK FORK — Did you hear the one about the two great-grandmothers and the grandma who went skydiving?

While it might sound like the beginning line of a joke, there is no punch line here. Rather, just an amazing story about three women, each with a story to tell, who decided to plunge out of an airplane from 13,000 feet up in the air.

Clark Fork’s Lori Morgan-Potter, at 49 the youngster of the trio, joined her mom Marian Morgan, 75, and friend Patty Graham, 84, on a recent skydiving adventure in Lost Prairie, Mont., just outside of Kalispell. The three grandmothers were a big hit at the skydiving festival, prompting one man to take their photo because he didn’t think anyone would believe him.

It was the first-ever jump for Graham, who has led quite an interesting life. She was living in Iran with her late husband — who helped build many dams, including the Cabinet Gorge Dam — during the revolution, getting out just before the hostages were taken and eventually settling down in Clark Fork in the early ’80s.

“Skydiving is nothing compared to what we went through,” said Graham, adding she was never really that nervous during the tandem jump. “I was just looking around going ‘yippee.’ ”

She said it was just like it looks on TV, adding she’s had to show pictures to people who don’t believe what she did.

The free fall lasted 55 seconds as her and the instructor plummeted from 13,000 feet to about 8,000 — at speeds exceeding 150 mph — before opening the chute and enjoying the rest of the fall.

“You have to make up your mind to do something like this,” said Graham, who because of a pacemaker and two artificial knees had to get permission from her doctor to jump. “A lot of people just think you’re crazy.”

Morgan-Potter was making her fourth jump, having become hooked on the adrenalized sport while catering the festival in Montana years ago. She talked about it so much that her mom Marian, who lives in Coeur d’Alene, began to get excited. Marian now has three jumps under her belt, a remarkable feat for a woman who wasn’t supposed to ever walk again.

Marian is a two-time cancer survivor, and doctors told her more than 10 years ago that she wouldn’t walk again after brain surgery. Too bad those doctors can’t see her now, jumping out of airplanes and even considering getting her certification in the daredevil activity, enabling her to jump on her own.

“It’s all she talks about; it’s so adorable,” explained Marian’s granddaughter Kessin Drews, who’s watched the previous jumps with equal parts pride and amazement. “For my mother to do it is one thing. For my grandmother to do it is simply amazing.”

Buoyed by the rush and new perspective on life, the trio of grandmothers are already saving money for next year, when they plan to do it again. Another year older, the women will no doubt be the talk of the festival  jumpers again, most of whom are less than half their age.

“It’s an awesome trip,” said Morgan-Potter. “We were quite the threesome.”