On March 12, Mrs. Bryant found one of the baby owls resting on a wood pile beneath the same oak tree, and she realized it had fallen out of its nest. As a true lover of nature and animals, she knew right away that the baby had to make it back to the nest in order to survive.

She called Lessie Davis, a wildlife rehabilitator in Union County, who helps abandoned or hurt animals and returns them to their natural environment.

Davis’ attempt to reach the nest were unsuccessful. The nest was too high for her ladder, but Davis and Bryant had not given up hope. Davis suggested calling the folks at Union EMC to see if a lineman could use a bucket truck to reach the nest and safely replace the baby owl.

Monday morning, I received a call from Lessie Davis asking if the co-op could assist in rescuing a baby owl.

After gaining permission, two linemen and a bucket truck were scheduled to arrive at the Bryants’ home the next morning at 9:00 a.m.

It was a beautiful, spring-like, morning on March 14th. With a camera and camcorder in hand, I met Mrs. Bryant and her husband, Bill. Little did I know, at that time, how significant our chance meeting at the Bryants’ home would be.

At about this time, Lessie Davis arrived and we all gathered around her as she opened a box. It held a small furry white owl with big yellow eyes.

Davis told us how the Great Horned Owl would grow to weigh 4 pounds and have a wingspan up to 7 feet.

“It’s the largest owl in North America,” she said. “Great Horned Owls mate for life and have two babies each year, usually in the early spring. They are very good parents, and both take responsibility to feed the hungry babies.” captured her comments on video and took photographs.

Linemen do not ordinarily rescue baby owls, but Ronnie Burgess was eager to help. Davis handed him the box and I handed him the camcorder. Then he rode to the top of the oak tree. Carefully, he placed the baby owl back in the nest with its sibling. Burgess called down to us as he videotaped the owls, “It’s amazing! You’ve got to see this!”

Mr. and Mrs. Bryant waited as the lineman returned to the ground with the camcorder in hand. Knowing how much Mrs. Bryant wanted to see the owls in their nest, I played the video through the camcorder’s viewfinder.

Mrs. Bryant exclaimed, “Oh… look, aren’t they sweet.”

After our mission was completed, Davis told Mrs. Bryant how the owls would first learn to walk and flap their wings and finally around July, the owls should be flying. Mrs. Bryant said she would be excited to watch the owls grow up.

Life is full of irony. Mrs. Bryant would not see the owls flying in July.

The day after our successful rescue mission, Mrs. Bryant passed away at her home with her husband by her side and her baby owls safely nestled in the oak tree in her yard.

After I heard the news, I developed the pictures I had taken that day. In the stack of photographs, one picture quickly stood out. It was a picture of Elizabeth Bryant, alive and glowing, her heart warmed by the rescue of her beloved owls. Truly, the generous and warm nature of a very kind woman was reflected in that photo.

At that moment, I knew how important our mission had been at Elizabeth Bryant’s home that morning in March.

She shared with us her gift of kindness and her spirit of love and concern for the smaller creatures of this earth. I was honored to present Mr. Bryant and his family with the special photograph of his wife and copy of the video we had made that morning.

We pay tribute to Elizabeth Bryant who was a wife to Bill Bryant for 57 years, mother of two sons, grandmother of two grandsons, and schoolteacher for 30 years. If not for her act of kindness towards a little owl, we would have missed meeting a beautiful and kind human being.