ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The family of Michael “Mike” Grimes travelled to Alaska this week to collect his remains and belongings after he tragically died in a plane crash southeast of Cordova on June 18.
The California pilot had been flying for over two decades, said Amber Grimes, Mike’s wife of nearly 30 years. In addition to flying, Mike Grimes loved hunting and spending time with family. He often took Amber and his two daughters, Riley and Ryann, flying. The family is raising funds to transport Mike home to the Bay Area of California.
“He had these incredibly strong hands that were just really comforting to hold, but his laugh was absolutely, obnoxiously, contagious,” Amber Grimes said. “It didn’t matter how mad he made you or how sad you were or how bad a situation would be. He would just laugh it off with complete peace and joy that everything would be okay. And it was a laugh that made everybody else in the room laugh.”
For Mike, flying was a long-time dream of his, Amber Grimes said.
“From the time he was about six, seven, eight years old, used to jump off of very high objects, bunk beds, tops of low roofs, and he would just believe that if he had enough faith that he would fly,” Amber said.
Once getting his license, it opened a world of possibilities to him and his family.
“We would hop in the plane and take a family trip for the weekend and go to an event,” Amber said. “We would fly friends and family out for lunch and joke that we were going out for a hundred-dollar hamburger because the price of fuel.”
When not in the cockpit, Amber said he loved hunting and sailing, but most of all, spending time with family. She said he put his faith at the forefront of everything.
“I mean, he — he loved the Lord, he shared his faith with everybody,” Amber said. “But, gosh, he — he was just a person that lived life to the absolute fullest without ever having any regrets and no, no thought for consequence, he knew he was indestructible.”
“And the man has lived at least 25 lifetimes in his short 51 years. He lived every day.”
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