Monty Long celebrated her 60th birthday by jumping out of an airplane.
With a parachute, of course, and a skydiving instructor.
She’s also rediscovered skiing, and tore her ACL in the process. But that didn’t hold her back as evidenced by a recent ski trip to Canada.
She’s hopped on the back of a motorcycle with one son, hunted deer with another.
It’s all part of her desire to live life to the fullest – to create a bucket list of sorts. The things left to do.
She said last year’s skydiving trip with her oldest son was the most empowering thing she’s ever done. Afterwards, she told herself, “It’s time to get out of your comfort zone.”
Long and her husband Lee have been married 29 years. He owns Long Utilities, a subdivision builder, and for the most part she stayed home and raised their three boys.
Her world revolved around football and all the other trappings of child life. The people she associated with were largely the mothers of her son’s friends.
“I didn’t make the time for friends, she said.
Then one by one, the boys grew to that independent stage where even though they live with you, they don’t really.
So she got to know her neighbors in Bruce Farm. And that was step one of the active life she lives now.
Sixty percent of the women in the subdivision get together once a month for lunch. Eight get together for weekly dinner. Some travel together – like the ACL-tearing trip. They play bridge. They stay at each other’s beach or mountain houses.
“How can you have so many people you’re so crazy about?” Long wonders sometimes. There are so many activities the husbands sometimes feel abandoned.
They’ve been to New York City, on a cruise to the Caribbean.
“We’re absolutely insane,” she said.
Long is a fervent traveler, taking each of her sons to Europe and going twice with the whole family to Alaska, once to Hawaii. New Orleans, Las Vegas, a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon.
A girlfriend of a son called at 10 p.m. one night and said she was trolling around Travelocity and found a great deal to Cancun. The plane left at 9 a.m. the next morning. From Charlotte. Long was on the plane after spending much of the night digging out summer clothes.
“I don’t care where or what accommodations,” she said. “There’s nothing I don’t want to see.”
So now that’s she’s got this empowerment going, she’s decided to get more for her 61st birthday in October. Another jump.
She also wants to slide down a zip line – she hears Costa Rica is best for that. A balloon ride would be nice. Also some hiking on the Appalachian Trail. She got that idea from a picture she found of herself recently at two years old, standing in front of an AT trail marker.
Ireland. Martha’s Vineyard.
“I could call somebody and within a week we’d be off somewhere,” she said.
Her life, she said, for a long time was filled with maleness thanks to the men she loves. Even her two springer spaniels and her cat are male.
“Nobody sees eye to eye with girl things,” she said.
With her friends, she has added an outlet for living – and for developing bucket lists.
“I never realized how important friendships are,” she said.
