My new 104-year-old hero: Dorothy Hoffner

"Age is just a number"

Never give up.

• Jim Valvano

In the world we live in, there are a lot of mean, nasty, evil, and just plain awful people. We see them in our daily lives, on the news, or in our newspapers (we still have newspapers, don’t we?). Every now and then, though, I’ll come across someone so unremarkable that when they do something out of the ordinary, it’s worthy of being noticed AND celebrated.

The woman in the video above is 104-year-old Dorothy Hoffner, the oldest person to ever jump from an airplane. Why might she do that, you might ask?

Because she wanted to go skydiving and because she was about to let being 104 stop her.

She wasn’t out to break a record or to be a big deal…as if a 104-year-old jumping out of an airplane on a tandem jump wouldn’t be a big deal under ANY circumstance. No, she just wanted to experience jumping out of an aircraft. And so she did.

On Oct. 1, Hoffner made a tandem skydive that could land her in the record books as the world’s oldest skydiver. She jumped out of a plane from 13,500 feet (4,100 meters) at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois, 85 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

“Age is just a number,” Hoffner told a cheering crowd moments after landing. It was not her first time jumping from a plane — that happened when she was a spry 100 years of age.

Conant said he was working through paperwork to ensure that Guinness World Records certifies Hoffner posthumously as the world’s oldest skydiver, but he expects that will take some time. The current record was set in May 2022 by 103-year-old Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson of Sweden.

Conant said Hoffner didn’t skydive to break a record. He said she had so thoroughly enjoyed her first jump that she just wanted to do it again.

“She had no intention of breaking the record. And she had no interest in any publicity or anything. She wasn’t doing it for any other reason than she wanted to go skydiving,” he said.

Sadly, Ms. Hoffner died peacefully in her sleep sometime Sunday night.

Hoffner’s close friend, Joe Conant, said she was found dead Monday morning by staff at the Brookdale Lake View senior living community. Conant said Hoffner apparently died in her sleep on Sunday night.

Conant, who is a nurse, said he met Hoffner — whom he called Grandma at her request — several years ago while he was working as a caregiver for another resident at the senior living center. He said she had amazing energy and remained mentally sharp.

“She was indefatigable. She just kept going,” he said Tuesday. “She was not someone who would take naps in the afternoon, or not show up for any function, dinner or anything else. She was always there, fully present. She kept going, always.”

It appears Ms. Hoffner crossed her finish line precisely as she would have wished- doing the things she wanted, always going, always present, and always enjoying life. She still had her wits about her, and though age had slowed her, it had not stopped her. I suspect her energy and wit served as an example for those around her.

As a society, America doesn’t deal well with aging, even as our population ages. As increasing numbers of us get older, we’re ill-equipped to handle the needs of an aging population, few of whom are blessed to be as mobile and intellectually agile as Ms. Hoffner.

Sometimes, I wonder what will become of childless people- like Erin and me- who won’t have family to look after them. As Erin and I help to look after our parents, I wonder how we’ll fare when we need assistance.

Hopefully, that problem’s a long way down the road, but it’s an issue our government needs to address. With a population consistently growing older, how does America address the unique needs and concerns of that population?

I admire Ms. Hoffner’s unwillingness to assume the role of being “old” and doing what she still wanted to do. Why shouldn’t a 104-year-old woman go skydiving? If the appropriate precautions can be taken and she can be protected, why not allow her to take the risk?

Too often, we keep seniors in the metaphorical equivalent of bubble wrap and in a place where they’re not allowed to do anything that involves taking a physical risk. Allowing 95-year-olds to play roller derby or tackle football probably isn’t the wisest choice, but if someone has been active their entire life, why not allow them to continue to do as they wish with appropriate precautions?

If that means a 104-year-old woman goes skydiving, why not? Explain the risks, ensure she understands them, have her sign a waiver, and then have at it. Life is about risk; it’s about taking chances and putting something on the line. Sometimes, to experience something extraordinary, you have to take extraordinary risks. Of course, at 104, pretty much everything involves tremendous risk…so you can play it safe and risk nothing or acknowledge what you’re putting on the line and do it anyway.

Dorothy Hoffner knew what she was risking and chose to jump out of the airplane. She trusted that her equipment and the instructor she was harnessed to would keep her from harm, and she went ahead and jumped.

As Ms. Hoffner said when her feet were on terra firma, “Age is just a number.” Right…and life is what you do with it. People are often appalled at some of the risks I’ve taken, living and working in war zones, but I’ve never seen what I’ve done as risks. I was doing what I wanted to be doing, and I was where I wanted to be.

I always figured that if I caught a sniper’s bullet, at least I would’ve died doing something meaningful to me and those who benefitted from my work. I wasn’t stuck behind a desk doing something I hated for 40 hours a week. I was living, and whatever risks accompanied it were worth it.

Sure, dealing with minefields and all the accouterments that accompany working in a war zone were occasionally unpleasant and inconvenient, but that was the world I lived in, and I wouldn’t have been anywhere else.

Would I want to be doing that at 104? Probably not, but I was living as I wanted, just as Dorothy Hoffner was. I hope that when I’m 104, I’ll want to jump out of an airplane…and I hope that will terrify Erin.

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