FOR BILL & CLAUDIA For a number of years I’ve gone in search of magnolia blooms to photograph, most recently for a series of still life images all taken in the bedroom of my place on the shore. In late May/early June I’d start my search looking for great old trees with low hanging branches where blooms were reachable (sometimes I’d partner with a step stool). Inevitably and always I’d run into Bill and Claudia at The Charlotte or Bizotto’s, and ask if they’d mind if I clipped a few blooms from the beautiful magnolia that anchors the front grounds at Mt Prospect. Of course, we have plenty, they’d always say. Such was/is their graciousness. This community, bound together by its small town charm, was rightly saddened by Bill’s death a few weeks back. He was a good man to know, a gentleman of the first order, and I still find myself looking for he and Claudia in the front window having dinner at Bizzotto’s. As a community we are certainly better for his presence - and all that blooms again when this sadness subsides. Here’s to you Bill Bagwell.
