I make no effort to conceal my affection and admiration for Susan Bacot-Davis. My love. My bride. My best friend. My co-adventurer. My life partner in every way. Beautiful and bold, smart and sexy, generous and compassionate, creative and athletic, determined and stubborn as all get-out. And this, my friends, brings me to today minus 10 years. This brings me to the March 12, 2014 whiteout, wife out moment memorialized in these snow bleached photographs.
As you can see in the photograph above today’s temperate conditions offered a world of difference from Wednesday, March 12, 2014. The blustery blizzard dumped a whole lot of fresh snow on top of what we already had. Visibility close to nil. White. Out.
But whiteout, wife out?
Yes.
If you squint while looking at the photograph above, perhaps you will see Susan. To the left of the carriage barn, between the distant trees, the hint of a red parka. Cross-country skiing toward Rosslyn’s backland. To her right, a couple of trees over, you might even discern our labrador retriever, Griffin. He’s wearing a fluorescent, orange kerchief. As intrepid an adventure as Susan, I can imagine the enthusiasm with which they both ventured into the storm.
But before gliding into the snowy meadows and forest trails, Susan fed the birds. Sunflower seeds, millet, nuts, and other goodies for the birdfeeder, and plenty of cracked corn to spread across the snow for the ducks. Yes, in the middle of a snowstorm. Yes, before enjoying a cross-country ski adventure with Griffin. That’s the way she rolls.
Intrepid. Beneficent. Resolute.
To this day, Susan is fiercely attentive to the birds. Even in a blizzard. Even when inconvenient. Even when other things are competing for her attention.
Soon I will share a delicate backstory (with Susan’s permission, of course) for the poignance I still experience looking at these scenes of my bride tending to the birds and then venturing into the storm. Until then, these dreamy recollections best illustrate the memory. Whiteout. Wife out…
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