All that changed in March when her daughter, Sharon Banks, spotted a voucher for a helicopter ride among silent auction items at a fundraiser held by Halton Women’s Place at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Banks, who lives in the Kilbride area, is a volunteer with the Milton arm of the organization that provides shelter and crisis services for abused women and their dependent children.

“When I saw it, I knew I had to get it for my mom,” Banks said. “It had her name all over it. It was the perfect gift.”

When she next visited her mom, Banks asked her to guess what special gift she had got for her. Bennett didn’t guess immediately but before long she said quizzically, “a helicopter ride?”

And so, on Friday, May 22, one day before her 91st birthday, Bennett scratched “helicopter ride” off her ‘to do’ list. She spent 25 minutes aboard a whirlybird looking down over the rural Kitchener area and the Grand River that traverses much of it.

“I wasn’t one bit afraid,” Bennett said, smiling broadly during a recent interview as she recalled her adventure. “I’m sure people my age don’t even think about it. But I’ve always wanted to take a helicopter ride and it was super, just lovely.”

Banks said she first got the all-clear from her mom’s doctor, Dr. Barb McMeekin, before suggesting the ride. “Mom was the oldest passenger they have ever had,” she said of Great Lakes Helicopter, the company that provided the ride. “They couldn’t have been nicer,” she added, noting that the staff treated her mom like a queen.

Tiffany, the young pilot, told Banks after the flight that once they were in the air Bennett suggested that they make Tahiti their destination. But she settled for the scenic countryside near Breslau and enjoyed crisscrossing the river in the two-seated aircraft that flew at about 500 feet for the bulk of the trip.

Bennett is no stranger to air travel. She and her husband, Jack (now deceased), flew to England, Holland and Russia many years ago. She also recalled taking airplane rides during community events that took place near Carlisle United Church during the 1940s. She grew up across from the church and remembers the rides were offered for “one cent per pound (of passenger).”

Banks said that while Bennett enjoyed her helicopter ride, a group of 14 people, including family and friends, watched from the ground. Her sons, Brian of Dundas and Glen of Windsor, were on hand to witness the event and help transfer their mom from her wheelchair into the helicopter. Afterward, everyone gathered at Alexander Place to have birthday cake and ice cream.

While the former kindergarten teacher, who is also a grandmother and great-grandmother of six, might still surprise her family by deciding to add something else to her ‘to do’ list, she admits that she is quite content for the moment.

“I have to keep my feet on the ground now,” she joked.