Brazilian Grandma, 100, Skydives for Christmas

December 22, 2009 — Just think what the dinner conversation would be this holiday season if your grandmother were as cool as Aida dos Santos. Dos Santos, a 100-year-old grandmother from Brazil, went skydiving for the first time on Saturday and says it was so much fun that she plans to do it again. After turning 100 on November 20, dos Santos participated in a tandem jump from about 9,750 feet with her instructor, Pedro Paulo, who guided her during a freefall of nine seconds and then brought her in to a gentle landing, the Terra website reported. The landing occurred at the airport at Macapa, capital of the Amazon state of Amapa, where Dos Santos has lived her entire life. "It's something rather nice and I want to do it again," she said once she was back on the ground. Among her relatives waiting for her was her grandson Josivaldo Vaz dos Santos, 27, who enjoys skydiving and got her interested in giving it a try, the Latin America Herald Tribune reported. Dos Santos said that her first jump was a kind "of birthday and Christmas present" and she added that after doing it she felt much younger. "Now it's just as if I was only 50," she said.

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