One sunny day in '99, during our first years of courting one another, I took Dagma for a drive in the Salinas Valley, CA to a surprise destination. I drove to a local airport where I had a pilot and a glider plane awaiting us. From the windshield of our parked car the glider was parked in front of us. I turned to her and said, "I have arranged an adventure for you Dagma. Your first flying lesson...in that glider." I had experienced soaring many times before. "Let's get out and I'll introduce you to your instructor."

"What? I can't do that. I'm a mother of five children."

"Let's talk to the pilot, you may change your mind." Ok, she agreed to do this. Dagma buckled up in the glider in front of the pilot. Before the glider was hooked up by cable to the tow plane, I put a head set on her, handed her my iPod, and said, "This is likely to be a remarkable journey for you."

I had previously taped the soundtrack of 'Out of Africa' for her flight in a cloudless sky over the valley and along the Monterey coastline above migrating whales. She turned to me with a nervous smile from the cockpit as I watched her take off. Then tow plane pulled the glider into wide climbing circles. When the plane released the tow rope the glider pulled up into a vertical arc. She was now like a bird in flight. It was all I had hoped for. She was thrilled to experience silent flight.

Some years later, after her kids had grown, she left Spokane, WA to live with me in Carmel, CA. I took her on another surprise drive to a small airport in Hollister and introduced her to the pilot of a waiting bi-plane for her first lesson in aviation acrobatics. On her head set a different soundtrack...I think it was Tony Bennett singing "Fly Me to The Moon."

We enjoy daily surprises with one another. Other opportunities for flight-like, "Darlin', I want to show you a new flower that has just-bloomed in the garden. Here's a glass of wine. Walk with me."