Reagan, St Barts, Stained glass, and dangerous doings

 

http://www.bethsurdut.com/glass.html

Our nation's capital, The Joys of St. Barts, and safety issues-- Reagan was president. He'd been shot a couple of years before I designed and fabricated this three panel skylight called "The Joys of St Barts." My mother called to make sure I wasn't standing next to him. She also called me when Mt St Helen blew because one Washington is just scary as another when your kid might be involved in a catastrophe.
The family who commissioned this piece vacationed regularly on the island of St Barts. Their last name was Joy. Within a year, joy became sorrow, when the husband, who had regaled me with tales of seeing Angel Falls (the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall) and other adventures, plummeted to his death in DC. The helicopter that was carrying him and his photographer buddy, who was taking pictures for a real estate flyer, malfunctioned, killing both men.
I have done and will probably continue to do some things that people think are dangerous-- including getting strapped onto a bench seat of a home built plane that had no skin and flying over the sea and mountains of Oahu. And then there's the 3 years with the gators. And learning to fly a plane before I went to flight school. But guess what--knowing the odds of a copter going down, I'll never willingly get into one.
Yeah, safety. What I didn't factor in was the mechanics who replaced my brakes this week and sent me out into traffic with a brake pedal that went all the way to the floor. Not much scares me. That sure as hell did.