FREEFALL FOR BETTY

Don’t ask Betty Qualls to do something if you’re not prepared to follow through.

Case in point: The 95-year-old’s recent tandem skydive, part of a three-generation jump.

“I did it!” Qualls exclaimed after a gentle landing at the Waseca airport last weekend.

So how in the world did she end up traveling 126 mph through the air after leaving a plane 10,000 feet up?

The plan

It started with the friendship she formed with Aric Christopherson, who also happens to be the activities assistant at Prairie Manor Nursing Home, where Qualls lives.

He showed her a skydiving video, “and we were just talking about it,” Qualls said. “He said, ‘would you want to do this?’ And I said I’d love to.”

It wasn’t an unusual question: Christopherson also took her on her first Ferris wheel ride at the 2025 Steele County Free Fair.

And it wasn’t an unusual answer: Qualls has always been adventurous, though it took her a while to show her true colors at Prairie Manor.

“Betty was always, like, ‘Quiet Betty’ in the nursing home,” said Deb Brown, activities director. “You hardly ever saw her come out (of her room). Then she started coming out for games, and Aric gets everybody pumped up about all the activities.”

First came the Ferris wheel ride, “then a few weeks later, she comes riding up on the back of a Harley,” Brown said.

No big deal, Qualls said.

“When I was a little girl, my brother had one, and he would take me for rides,” she said. “Mother would get furious, every time. ‘Don’t you do that!’ And my brother would tell her, ‘We’re having fun, Mom.’”

But skydiving? At 95?

“When they started talking about it,” Brown said, “I thought they were joking, because they laughed about it. Then, literally, about a week ago, I realized, wait a minute. This is for real. Are you serious?”

Qualls certainly was, and had the support of her extended family.

“I think you just make up your mind to do something, and you do it,” she said.

When her family encouraged her, Qualls challenged them to join her. She got two takers: Her daughter, Pam Lujan, also of Blooming Prairie, and Pam’s daughter, Denise Lujan, of Rochester.

Family friend Christopherson, who had showed Qualls that video, joined them.

While others laughed, the four made their reservations with Skydive North Star in Waseca for an Oct. 19 jump.

Jump day

Lina Matejcek, who owns the business with her husband Kasey Matejcek, called the family early that morning “to tell them to make sure she dresses appropriately. It’s cold.”

Indeed it was, with temperatures in the low 40s on the ground; temps were in the single digits at 10,000 feet. It was windy, too – not ideal for skydiving – but within the safety limits.

Qualls and a large cheering section arrived at the airport about 9:30 a.m.; the jump was scheduled for 10 a.m.

“When she got here, we just made sure she could lift her legs so she could get her knees up to land,” Lina Matejcek said. “Other than that, we just made sure the harness fit and stuff that I always do for everybody.”

Tandem master Dan Gieser, of Mankato, took Qualls up; Christopherson was on the same load with tandem master Kasey Matejcek, who usually takes the older customers.

“I have the most experience doing this,” he said, with 20 years and more than 5,100 jumps to his credit. His oldest passenger was 98.

Gieser has between 3,500 and 4,000 skydives; “I stopped counting a while back,” he said.

While he doesn’t remember the age of his oldest passenger, “most of the older women are actually better. They remain more flexible than the older guys do. The older guys, man, they’re stiff as a board; it’s tougher to get them out of the (airplane) door.”

Jumping with a 95-year-old, Gieser said, isn’t necessarily more nerve-wracking, despite joking with Qualls that “I want you to be as scared as I am.”

“You just have to be aware that they’re only going to do so much,” he said. “It’s no different than some young people that we take.”

Qualls wasn’t nervous either – and she was asked plenty of times.

“No, not at all,” she said.

Qualls exchanged hugs with family and friends as she and Christopherson prepared to climb aboard the Cessna 182 jump plane.

“Hey, I can’t jump with my false teeth in my mouth,” she said.

She didn’t.

The jump

About 15 minutes after taking off, the pilot let the ground crew know that the jumpers were out.

Moments later, the first duo – Qualls and Gieser – were spotted.

They landed a little over five minutes later to cheers; a golf cart zipped over to bring Qualls back to the hangar.

Despite her exuberant “I did it,” she responded just as quickly to the next question: Would she jump again?

“No.”

Later, Qualls would explain her answer: “It’s like everything,” she said. “I do it once, and once is enough. I mean, it was fun – God, did I enjoy it up there. I did.”

Christopherson’s jump – his second one – was also uneventful.

Pam and Denise Lujan jumped about 30 minutes later.

Both admitted to being nervous before take-off.

“It was my grandma that got me into this whole thing,” Denise said. “I can’t back down now.”

Pam wasn’t initially nervous, she said, “but after I saw how high she got? Yes.”

Jump reflections

“I did pretty good without my beautiful ‘earrings,’” Qualls said later, referring to her hearing aids. She also left her glasses behind, with her teeth.

“I had to laugh about sitting in Dan’s lap,” she said. “Oh, man, how neat. First time he had an old lady sitting in his lap.”

Her comments track for someone who says that “all my life, I want to make people happy, make them smile.

“I started out bartending when I was about 17 years old, and that’s what I was doing all my life,” Qualls said. “Then I thought later in life, you know, I’ve got to do something with myself. So I tried sitting at a desk; it was boring. The bar was more fun.”

So was skydiving, she said.

“Getting out of the plane,” she began, then opened her mouth and her eyes wide – “but once I got my breath, I was ready to go. When I turned over, I thought, whoa. You look down – and look where I am!”

Her great-granddaughter, Layla Lujan, also of Blooming Prairie, asked Qualls if her adrenaline was coming down.

“Am I coming down?” Qualls repeated. “Well, I already came down once.”

The event could have been four generations; Layla, 24, said had she known about the jump earlier, “I would have said yes.”

Denise and Pam Lujan both said they’d do it again “in a heartbeat. I think it has to do with these guys; they talk you through it, they tell you what to do.”

With skydiving off her bucket list, Gieser presented Qualls with “a certificate that says you floated through the sky and had a good time.”

Her tandem master “was so sweet,” Qualls said, then repeated her line about it being the first time he had an old lady sitting in his lap.

“I won’t say it was the first time,” Gieser said, “but it was definitely the best time.”

What’s next?

Two words, Qualls said.

Stock car.