It was on her bucket list.

    Wednesday evening, Sudie Palomarez went up – straight up – in a hotair balloon piloted by Steve Jones. With the trip, she was able toscratch off item No. 3 on her list of things to do before shedies.

    Though Palomarez is a Brookhaven Police Department officer, nerveswere getting the best of her as she anticipated the flight.

    “I’m scared to death,” she said before liftoff. “It’s going to beso high. I haven’t slept for days.”

    Palomarez won the balloon ride in a drawing she entered held as afundraiser.

    Jones agreed to donate a balloon ride to the fundraiser held forDestiney Marie Archer. Archer, almost 2 months old, has Tetralogyof Fallot, a congentical heart defect and requires surgeries.

    The fundraiser was held to aid the family.

    Palomarez said that when she entered the Aug. 27 drawing, she didnot really expect to win.

    “I won a case of oil once,” she said. “That’s about all I’ve everwon.”

    Jones allowed Palomarez to bring one person with her, and shepicked her sister, Sherry Williams.

    “I’m as excited as she is,” Williams said speaking of hersister.

    While Jones was waiting for wind speeds to die down, Palomarez tookthe time to review a many-folded copy of her bucket list she pulledfrom her pocket.

    “Some of this will never happen,” she said.

    Her top three is looking good, though. She scratched off theballoon flight, at No. 3, Wednesday. She has already done No. 2, tosee the Taj Mahal.

    That only leaves No. 1: be the queen of something.

    “We’ll see if it ever happens,” she said.