| Times Herald-Record
At 104 years old, Agnes Van Put checks one off the bucket list; a helicopter ride
“It was amazing to see what it was like from up above,” Van Put said after her ride Monday.
MONTICELLO – Agnes Van Put at 104 years old wanted one thing: To fly in the sky in a helicopter.
She knocked that dream off her bucket list Monday afternoon with the help of a local pilot and Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther’s office. Helicopter Flight Services pilot Michael Croissant, of the family owned business Swinging Bridge Marina, took her high into the sky — about 2,000 feet — so she could get a bird’s-eye tour of Sullivan County.
“It was amazing to see what it was like from up above,” Van Put said after her ride Monday.
Van Put, Gunther and Croissant flew in the helicopter over the Resorts World Catskills casino in the town of Thompson, Bethel Woods and even Aileen Gunther’s home in Forestburgh.
Against the Swinging Bridge Reservoir backdrop on Starlight Road, the helicopter took off from the makeshift pad next to trailers and boats, knocking post-peak leaves off the trees and blowing a dust cloud dozens of feet high and wide into the air. It happened to be a picturesque, warm, sunny, not your typical November day, which was ideal for the ride.
Gunther had been trying for more than a year to get her good friend, Van Put, into a helicopter. Finally, after the weather struggles, the pandemic and the busy summer months in Sullivan County, the assemblywoman’s office was able to make the trip a reality.
“Agnes is a pretty special lady,” Gunther said. “She’s done a lot for the community.”
Croissant, of Monticello, was proud to help make it happen.
“There’s no bad view from the sky,” the 30-year pilot said.
It was everything the local fly fishing expert expected and more.
“It’s amazing when you look down and you see all the water and the trees and the houses,” Van Put added.
Van Put and her late husband, Emil, moved to Sullivan County in the 1960s specifically so the couple could fly fish. The two were longtime members and volunteers of the Catskill Fly Fishing Museum in Livingston Manor, a short ways from the home the couple bought in 1971, where Van Put still lives today.
When she’s not looking down onto the trees from the sky, she is typically sitting on her front porch getting some sun on her face when it’s nice out or baking up a storm in her kitchen. Gunther said Van Put’s soups and cookies are especially delicious.
Van Put’s got one thing left on her bucket list and that’s to, once again, drive a 1920 Ford Roadster stick-shift convertible with a rumble seat. It was the first car she ever owned, and she would love the chance to sit in it again for one last time.
“I would love to go for a ride in one,” she said.
rettlinger@th-record.com
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