Astronauts are gutsy adventurers! Wanting to experience a taste of space exploration, my friend Randi and I attended adult Space Camp. It was a life dream of Randi’s. The two of us joined a team of 15 adults, “The Pioneers.”. There was another 13 member adult team who we were competing against all weekend.
We stayed in the student dorms and ate in the cafeteria just like a regular kids’ camp. But we were at “Space Camp” in Huntsville, Alabama where we were able to try out these orbital rings, achieve group challenges, fly the space shuttle simulator, do experiments in the space station, operate mission control as a team and go on a spacewalk.
How did we decide to go to space camp? After all, we were non-scientific actresses that don’t embrace data and checklists.
Randi had been coping with terminal cancer for two years. In December 2017, Randi was told that the treatments were no longer working and she had six months to live. Randi, and her husband Roger, had invited me over so they could share this news. Randi did not wear her white wig. I was honored that she was comfortable with me. Her baldness was striking, revealing her endurance and her exhaustion.
Roger had lovingly cooked a prime rib dinner to mark this a special occasion. Roger asked his wife of 60 years, “What is something you’ve always wanted to do, Randi?”
As Randi pondered, I thought about all she’d accomplished and her varying interests. Randi was an accomplished actress, murder mystery thespian, historian, magician, quilter, television and radio personality and dollhouse enthusiast. Randi was so creative she’d become bored after she achieved perfection and eagerly moved onto a new project. In the beginning of their relationship, she and her husband had owned and managed a restaurant . I wondered what her heart’s desire would be.
I met Randi six years ago when she and my daughter, Charlotte, starred in the play, “Steel Magnolias.” Randi played the part of the busy body, southern hairdresser,“Truvy.” One of her favorite lines was, “Well, darling, time marches on and soon you discover it’s been marching across your face.” She and Charlotte developed a kinship during this show. When the actresses imposed their ideas on fellow characters, sixteen year old Charlotte would become frustrated and lash out at me. Randi would jump in, “You never talk to your mother like that!” Randi quietly encouraged Charlotte under the roar of the other actresses as Charlotte’s part of a chronically ill young woman was challenging. I knew Randi would always be special to us.
Randi had directed, “The Dixie Swim Club,” which I was cast as a pregnant former nun. The production shows the friendship of five women who were on a college swim team. They would meet every summer at a cottage on the ocean. The play spanned their adult lifetimes with each scene being a decade later. In the last scene we held Dina’s ashes in a martini shaker recalling our lives we’d shared. As the lights dimmed my stage tears became real tears as I was thinking of Randi, our memories we’d shared and her cancer diagnosis.
She and I had been going to improv classes for the past two years. Even with all her experience Randi continued to strive to perfect her acting skills. She could instantly create a character with varying gestures, expressive voices and animated facial features. We’d develop scenes from thin air taking the audiences into imaginary lands. It was magical.
As we ate our prime rib I wondered what Randi would want to do. “I want to go to space camp. I can wear Clayton’s suit from his week at space camp when he was in fourth grade.” (Clayton is their only child.)
Roger graciously shared Randi with me and organized our flights and registered us on line for adult space camp.
Our team, “The Pioneers” cheered for each other and even broke into song a few times. We had four newscasters from New York City, two brothers who along with their sister had started the Missouri Star Quilt Company and several others who knew how to embrace life. Their compassion for each team member, especially, Randi, was powerfully encouraging and nurturing.
At the close of the first day at camp, I sat back and let everyone pick their position for the next day’s assignments. After all, I was there to support Randi. Well, the commander of the shuttle was the job that was left. I would be flying the shuttle! I started sweating and it wasn’t because of a hot flash. I wished I had used my husband’s flight simulator which is set up in our basement. I was going into this assignment blind!
During the simulation Randi became ill. She was dizzy and nauseated. She had to leave the pilot seat. She was taken below and wrapped in silver heat retaining tarps. They offered to have her taken to medical, but she refused, “What would you do if I was a real astronaut?” she paused – but didn’t wait for an answer. ” We would all have to make due. I am staying with my team.”
Robert Bundy was moved into the pilot seat, to assist me, the commander, in setting the pitch, yaw and roll of the craft as well as setting the landing gear. The landing was about to commence as we entered the Earth’s atmosphere. Robert put down the landing gear at 15,000 feet. It was suppose to be at 1,500 feet. “Robert, that’s not suppose to go down yet.” I tried to sound casual. He quickly ‘tucked” the landing gear back inside. My attention was distracted as I listened for Randi who I couldn’t see. As the commander my goal was to keep the “star in the box” as we descended toward the ground. I kept two hands on the joist stick. I could see the runway, but I was too high. “May I go around and make another pass?” I asked mission control. “Negative. You would stall and crash. You NEED to land.” I could hear the desperate whispers of my team, “She missed the runway!”
As I approached a thickly wooded area I knocked into trees and foliage. I kept the ‘star in the box.’ Mission control stated “You’re going to need a machete to get out of these woods, but it was a survivable landing.” Celebratory cheers rose from below me and from the mission control team over the headset.
At the award ceremony each person earns a certificate and a pin. Every week the U.S. Rocket and Space board choose one camper for the “Right Stuff Award.” You guessed it. Randi was chosen and wore this medal proudly. Our team was thrilled, as you can see.
Right after this picture was taken, Randi said she was going to be sick. As she sat in the bathroom with a garbage can between her knees she said, “This has been so wonderful!” The night before as she laid in her bunk she shared, “I can go now. I have completed all my missions.”
Randi passed to the “next level” on Wednesday, March 13th.
Katie Barry (Photographed behind Randi) put this video together and shared it on March 15th as an honor to Randi
