Jennifer and I worked together at HistoryNet. I remember when I first met her and the Civil War Times team on the job interview in 2016, I left the interview thinking how easy it was to talk to her and the others. There was an instant mutual understanding and respect. “I could definitely work with them. These are my people,” I told my husband. I was not wrong. From day one, Jennifer was straightforward, creative, respectful, helpful, and kind.

It was always a pleasure to catch up after the weekend with her and discuss the goings on. We were both “OH MY GOD CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT HAPPENED?” hooked on the true crime podcast Serial and couldn’t get to work fast enough every morning to discuss a new episode of Stranger Things.

We loved to talk about photos and my favorite memories of her are from photo excursions for the magazine. We would marvel together at the sky when it shined a bright blue with full fluffy clouds bursting about and how that improved the look of any landscape photo. In turn, we would sigh together when the sky was overcast and white, knowing we’d have to work that much harder to find better angles or lighting to make the images appealing without the sky as backdrop.

My favorite trip was in October of 2017 when we went to Charleston, SC. We drove down and back from her home in Purcelville and made several stops on the way to and from, enjoying easy conversations about work, history, art, music, life, and family. She introduced me to North Carolina BBQ on the way down, and she insisted on showing me “South of the Border” on the way home. I remember running around snapping photos of the molded dinosaurs and souvenir shopping in the kitschy stores with her, purchasing completely ridiculous trinkets to commemorate what would probably be my only trip ever to this sideways adventure land.

Nobody understood more than she the desire to take photos of places without straggling people littering the landscape and she and I would wait for sometimes an eternity for that opportunity to present itself, always worth it. We just got each other that way.

My favorite memory of that trip to Charleston and my time with Jennifer was a tour of Fort Sumter. We were allowed time a plenty by the tour operators to wander the site and soak in its history and all the mysterious nooks and crannies the structure presented to photograph. While waiting for the boat to ferry us back to land, we noticed a mess of butterflies fluttering about the wildflowers that covered the exterior grounds of the fort. In an instant the two of us grabbed our phones and cameras and chased around snapping images of them landing, resting on the flowers, and flittering away.

“Sweet freedom whispered in my ear,
you’re a butterfly, and butterflies are free to fly, fly away,
high away, bye bye.” – Elton John

Goodbye, my friend. Fly high and free.

[Submitted by Melissa Winn]

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