Trish has been my buddy for 43 years. She had incredible intelligence and a beautiful loving sense of humor and personality. She never met anyone she didn’t like and vice versa. We’d be off birding somewhere and she would find someone along the path or road to have spontaneous conversations with. And they would leave laughing with but also a full rundown of the birds, they may find along the path. All the time! She made sure you had a good time in whatever you were doing. She was a bird dictionary and encyclopedia. Something I relied on heavily. I have so many stories and memories about our time together on this earth but there will always be a gigantic place in my heart that she filled with her unwavering friendship. I think it’s rare to have this kind of friendship and I feel so dog gone lucky that she remained my best friend through thick and thin. I will miss our adventures together, but I will never forget them. 💙
I’ll share this though: When we first started out photographing birds and trying to find all the species that God ever made, we would look for marked birding trails and she found one off 301 near Starke that she probably passed all the time when she worked. So we go walking down the trail and I’m absolutely ecstatic about seeing my first crab spider. Mind you this was very early on and we did not have an understanding about trails with long grass that are infrequently used. So we arrive back at the car and we look down at our socks and pants that are covered in ticks. It took everything I had not to fall apart in the vehicle, but as soon as we got back to her house, we practically stripped in the driveway. I’m not sure, but the clothes may have been tossed in the fire.
Thank you Trish and Sue, for making every day better with you in it.
I’ll save you a seat on the porch.
💙💙💙💙💙💙💙