This image was captured on a winter morning when the sun was rising over Great Bay, a tidal estuary on the coast of New Hampshire. We were visiting Charlie’s sister, Lela, for Thanksgiving weekend.
We had arrived two days earlier, eager to celebrate the holiday with Lela’s immediate family and a few invited guests. We anticipated convivial evenings by the fire, playing word games and and catching up with all the generations, from babies to grandparents.
Unfortunately, the day before Thanksgiving a winter storm blew in, knocking out power for miles around. And since Lela had never installed a generator, our quarters on the second floor of her barn turned cold—very cold. We are not exaggerating to say that the entire house felt like the inside of a freezer. Thanksgiving dinner was hastily piled in the back of her pick-up truck and relocated to a relative’s house in Boston, an hour’s drive south. We drove back to New Hampshire that night, returning to a house with no heat and no water. (Luckily, Lela had a good supply of down comforters.)
The next morning, wearing all the clothes in our suitcase, we shuffled to the living room just in time to see the sun rise over the bay. We grabbed our cameras and rushed outside, fingers so stiff we could barely hang on to the equipment. The effort resulted in the image you see here—a favorite and one that seems particularly appropriate for 2021. (Note: Lela installed a generator that summer!)