CARMICHAEL, CA (MPG) - Like Jack and Jill, Richard and Sue Joy Bristow walked up the hill on Deodar Street daily. Hand-in-hand, they strode down Landis, Marshall, Stanley and California Avenues on a daily journey. I recently pulled over and offered my friends a ride home. “No thanks,” they laughed. “Hiking around together is something we love.”

Their kids had moved away. Jack and Jill were now an energetic Derby and Joan partnership, enjoying a retirement that was a series of outdoorsy adventures. In their private aircraft, they buzzed away to famous air shows and aviation museums. “Richard and Sue Joy were always taking off somewhere,” observed a neighbor. On a sunny day last month, the Bristows (both 67) took off and never came back. Their aircraft plummeted after takeoff from Petaluma Airport, Sonoma County.

“Dad had piloted that plane thousands of times,” attests his son Bobby (36). “We’d all flown across country with him and we know how careful he was. We can’t imagine the accident was caused by anything other than major mechanical failure.” While still under investigation, the event is an undisputed community tragedy. Nearly 500 relatives, friends and members of Sacramento’s real estate fraternity attended the memorial event at Bayside Adventure Church, Roseville. Afterwards we witnessed a four-plane flyover in “missing man” formation. Glancing from the sky in tears, the couple’s son Bobby stated simply: “Mom and dad would have liked that.”

Richard and Sue Joy Bristow were high-flying adventurers. Richard earned his pilot’s license while at high school and flew for more than 50 years. As hobby, the real estate broker worked on aircraft with the same precision as he constructed huge-scale locomotives and restored antique clocks.  In the Bristow house, miniature trains run room-to-room at ceiling level. Model aircraft are suspended from the beams. Son Bobby inherited dad’s technical genius and together they created an electronic sound-and-light show that annually choked their cul-de-sac with Christmas crowds. This began when Bobby set out to give dad a special Christmas during his recovery from cancer. With food donations from visitors, the show reinforced the family’s ethic of giving back.

Their bigger donations were less razzle-dazzle but more life-changing. Richard and Sue Joy supported the Kiwanis Family House in Sacramento and an organization called Angel Flight, whose volunteers fly patients for medical treatment. The effort avoids the need for exhausting and costly car journeys. Pilots like to absorb all flight expenses and, in many years with the service, Richard Bristow flew hundreds of missions.  “I look for ways to be constructive and help others,” he said. “When people ask what I’m doing next day, it’s great to say I’m flying a cancer patient to treatment. You feel good about flying and good about the day.”

The Bristows also boosted the Experimental Aircraft Association and its Young Eagles program that introduces young people to aviation. With a network of volunteer pilots, the group has given more than two million kids a first free flight. “Dad had loved flight since he was a little boy,” explains daughter Heatherlee (46). “He wanted kids to share the opportunities he had. Through the years, he inspired several to follow their dreams into aviation careers.” After the Bristows’ deaths, the EAA announced plans to initiate a training scholarship in their name.

Sharing spilled into Bristow’s professional life. In a long history with Coldwell Banker, the broker was a friend to clients and colleagues. “So many of us learned from Richard,” says former co-worker Ron Greenwood. “He never let his competitive spirit impede what was best for a client or a fellow agent. He gave me a nugget of wisdom: never count your money before a deal is closed. A successful deal was something a realtor must carefully tend till the very end.”

The realtor’s 40-year companion was artistic, vivacious Sue Joy. She worked in a medical office before marrying Bristow and becoming a full-time mom. “They had the best marriage you could hope for,” said daughter Jennifer (45). “Even after 40 years together, mom was always excited about going on a date with dad.”

Sue Joy Lynn and her family had moved west from Missouri in the 1950s, settling a block from the Bristow’s Arden Park home. Though at elementary, middle and high schools together -- and though their families were friendly -- Richard and Sue Joy barely made eye contact. Each had early marriages and a daughter a piece before rediscovering each other in 1978.  Recalls daughter Heatherlee: “Mom fell in love with a chicken and rice dish dad made.  They had daughters almost the same age and we all started bike-riding and picnicking like a family. It wasn’t long before dad swept mom away to the Golden Gate Bridge and proposed. From sharing a burger to cycling the 237-mile Katy Trail (Missouri), they relished every moment they had together.”

Their final adventure was a day excursion to share a burger lunch in Petaluma.  The couple was excited about an upcoming trip to the Cayman Islands that would mark their 40^th wedding anniversary. The much-anticipated date fell a day after Richard and Sue Joy’s memorial. “I take solace in the fact that they made their final journey together,” says son Bobby.

“Mom and dad told us diving in the Caymans was heavenly,” ponders daughter Heatherlee.  “I believe heaven the most beautiful place you could ever imagine. I like to think of what happened to them was just an upgrade in their plans.”