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Released To The Skies

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: January 3, 2009

Updated: 01/03/2009 10:11 pm

ZEPHYRHILLS - The family and friends of parachutist Debbie Laws committed her ashes to the sky she loved so much during two skydiving jumps Saturday afternoon.

Laws, 48, died Dec. 26 when she collided with another jumper above Skydive City, a center of parachuting on the outskirts of this city in southeast Pasco County.

Laws' friends and family - a mixture of children, grandchildren, ex-spouses and step-relatives - gathered Saturday at the Drop Zone, Skydive City's laid-back community of hard-core skydivers.

A week after Laws' death, her loved ones reveled in their memories of a free-spirited woman who lived to jump.

"Mom never in a million years would have wanted people sitting around mourning her death," said Racheal Laws.

But the absence of a woman many recalled being full of life was palpable.

"It's hard," said Dave Eshelman, Laws' father. "A week ago it was harder. There's been a lot of tears out here today."

Eshelman was a U.S. Army Airborne Ranger. He began the family's skydiving tradition - one that Laws' children, Racheal and Randy, have partaken in. Saturday was Randy Laws' second jump, during which he scattered a portion of his mother's ashes.

"It felt exactly right," said Randy Laws, 28.

The centerpiece of the celebration of Laws' life started at 4 p.m. Earthbound members of the party laid on the ground in a cross, an imitation of the formation several dozen jumpers would create in the sky.

Moments later they spotted the black specks of divers about three miles above the ground as they drifted into the shape of a cross during their 60-second free-fall. A cheer went up from the ground as Laws' white ashes erupted from the center of the cross.

"There she goes," Jeannie Hart said as she peered into the sky.

Seconds later, the air above the party filled with skydivers.

As the divers touched ground, they were met with hugs and tears.

Thousands of feet above them, the remains of Debbie Laws faded, a cloud adrift on the wind.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201. Keyword: Skydive Memorial, to see images from the memorial jumps that took place Saturday above Skydive City in Zephyrhills.

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