Join hosts Scott and Jenn on Talk With History as they dive deep into the iconic story of the Memphis Belle, a B-17 Flying Fortress that became a symbol of perseverance during World War II. Discover the inspiration behind the aircraft’s name, inspired by Margaret Polk and cultural icons like Betty Grable, and hear about the personal bravery and camaraderie of its crew as they completed 25 perilous missions. The episode explores the Memphis Belle’s post-war journey, including pilot Robert Morgan’s engagement to Margaret Polk, their war bond tour to boost morale, and the lasting legacy of the aircraft and its crew. Enjoy fascinating historical anecdotes, the cultural impact of the Memphis Belle, and the tribute sites in Memphis, Tennessee, honoring this legendary aircraft and its stories of heroism.

🎥 Memphis Locations of the Memphis Belle

📍 Veteran’s Plaza at Overton Park

Transcript

126 memphis belle

[00:00:00] The Final Mission of the Memphis Belle

[00:00:00] Scott: May 17th, 1943. The pre dawn darkness enveloped the airfield at Bassingbourn, England. Inside their quarters, the crew of the B 17 Flying Fortress, Memphis Belle, stirred restlessly, each man lost in his own thoughts. Captain Robert Morgan, the pilot, stared at the ceiling. 24 missions completed. Just one more to go.

[00:00:30] The magic number that meant they could go home, but first they had to survive this last one. He didn’t even want to say the number out loud. Sergeant John Quinlan, the tail gunner, fumbled with a wrinkled photograph of his sweetheart back home. How many times had he kissed it for luck before a mission?

[00:00:48] Would today be the last time? In the mess hall, the smell of powdered eggs and strong coffee filled the air. The crew gathered, their usual banters subdued. They’d been through so much together. Flak, enemy fighters, the bone chilling cold at 20, 000 feet. Each mission. Could have been their last, but somehow they’d made it this far.

[00:01:10] As they suited up, Sergeant Harold Locke, the ball turret gunner, found himself touching the lucky charm his mother had given him. He’d never been superstitious before the war, but now you take whatever edge you can get. Captain Morgan gathered the crew for his briefing, another raid over Germany.

[00:01:29] They’d done it before, but the tension in the room was palpable, so close to completing their tour, yet the most dangerous mission still lay ahead. As they walked towards the Memphis bell gleaming in the early morning light, each man felt the weight of the past missions and the hope for the future. They didn’t know it yet, but this would be their last mission.

[00:01:50] The Memphis Belle would soon become a symbol of courage and perseverance, but for now, as they climbed aboard, they were just men doing their job, hoping to make it back alive. The engines roared to life, drowning out their thoughts. Another day, another mission. Maybe, just maybe, their last. 

[00:02:20] Introduction to Talk With History

[00:02:20] Scott: Welcome to Talk With History. I’m your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jen. 

[00:02:27] Jenn: Hello. 

[00:02:28] Scott: On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired world travels, YouTube channel journey, and examine history through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.

[00:02:39] Now, Jen, before we get into the obvious topic of this podcast episode, I want to give a shout out to our Memphis based listeners. We’ve had some, we’ve come across a couple of folks here and there that are listeners of the podcast. And because we are talking about a legendary Memphis aircraft, the Memphis Bell, I just want to give, a little hello to them and give them a shout out.

[00:03:03] So thank you to everybody in the Memphis area that’s listening and says You know says something to us whenever they see us about the podcast. We always appreciate that. 

[00:03:14] Memphis Belle: A Personal Connection

[00:03:14] Scott: So Jen What’s up with the Memphis Belle? 

[00:03:21] Jenn: It’s one of those movies that I was raised on and with my love of aviation It just became a entity onto itself, the Memphis Bell.

[00:03:33] When we moved to Memphis, I really didn’t put two and two together. And then as we lived here and I was talking to people about the Memphis Bell, they had memories of the Memphis Bell flying over Memphis. 

[00:03:45] Scott: and we’ll talk about the lifespan of the Memphis Belle, the B 17 aircraft, the bomber aircraft.

[00:03:51] But it was here after the war, for almost 60 years. It was like 2004 or five when it finally left. 

[00:03:59] Jenn: Yeah. And people remember it being in the park and you could go visit it and you could take pictures with it and you could see it. It was like one of those static aircraft that people can go see in different areas of America.

[00:04:12] The Memphis Belle belonged to Memphis. And so people had memories of it. And I just thought that was so fascinating. So then I wanted to find out more about who was named after the real crew and just more of the story of the Memphis Belle. 

[00:04:28] The Real Story Behind the Memphis Belle

[00:04:28] Jenn: So this started out as finding who was she. 

[00:04:32] Scott: And that’s because the movie Right?

[00:04:34] The 1990 movie, which really solidified the, the legend of the Memphis Belle. It kind of like kept it running, it was probably the better way to say it, to, to our generation now. But it, it didn’t really talk about that. It really was just the, the men, the crew, the war, and like the, the supposed last flight.

[00:04:52] And we’ll talk the, some of the accuracies or inaccuracies there. Sure. 

[00:04:55] Jenn: Sure. So that, yeah, the movie really doesn’t. go into any of their relationship, who she was specifically, and it really is just their last flight and the members of the crew in Europe the entire time. And it doesn’t really go into her story.

[00:05:13] Even the cruise story extended. And then there is a very, very Hollywoodized last flight. 

[00:05:19] Scott: Yeah, it was not that way, but we’ll talk a little bit more about that. So that’s what I liked about the video that. We just made that will come out just after this podcast episode is we dive into The origin story of the the real life memphis bell the the woman that this aircraft was essentially named after 

[00:05:38] Jenn: Yeah, and that’s A great 1944 documentary that we have actually put on the channel as well because that is the real crew and the real aircraft and We’ve cut some of that the movie You and that footage into this video about Margaret Polk, the actual Memphis Belle.

[00:05:57] So Margaret Polk is a girl from Memphis, which the moniker fits, right? And she meets Captain Robert Morgan, who is the pilot, the head pilot of the aircraft. 

[00:06:10] Nose Art and Its Significance

[00:06:10] Jenn: Now, We’ve done a whole episode on nose art. most aircraft of World War Two, if they are crew flown consistently started to pick up these monikers that basically identified them with their crew.

[00:06:26] And crews could really get morale boost flying with that aircraft. 

[00:06:31] Scott: And that’s it’s one of those things that you couldn’t pull this kind of stuff off nowadays with the way they named, some of the aircraft back then, but people love it. People love that World War II aircraft nose art, the names like just dancing on the edge of inappropriate and, and some of them were absolutely, and I think you had said in a past podcast episode, like the further away they got essentially from large headquarters, the more risque the nose art got.

[00:06:58] And so it’s fun to see those. 

[00:06:59] Jenn: It’s fun. And every image, every nose art has a story to tell. and you’d be hard pressed to find another aircraft nose art. But that has as popular story as the Memphis Belle. 

[00:07:14] Margaret Polk: The Inspiration

[00:07:14] Jenn: Robert Polk is the captain of this particular B 17 F, and he is stationed in Walla Walla, Washington.

[00:07:23] Margaret Polk’s sister is actually married to a doctor who is stationed in Walla Walla, Washington, at the Army base. And she’s driving to see her husband. And their mother, doesn’t want her daughter driving by herself. So asks Margaret, why don’t you go with your sister to Washington? 

[00:07:43] Scott: mean, you think about it, that’s a long drive, 

[00:07:45] Jenn: And this is the 1940s and I’m, and get just a woman on the road by herself that even now I wouldn’t want to be on the road by myself. 

[00:07:52] . And she sells it by you can stop in Wyoming, you can see Yellowstone. so Margaret’s yes, I would love to see Yellowstone. So she goes and like any typical 1940s story Margaret, there’s not a lot of women. And Margaret is the belle of the ball at this army base in Walla Walla, so much so that she’s getting asked out on dates and she’s having guys wanting to take her here and take her there.

[00:08:15] Jenn: And she’s, her, her date book is busy. And on July 31st, she already had a date with another man she had met Robert Morgan and it was his birthday. And he’s you need to come out with me. It’s my birthday. And she’s I already have a date with another man. they fight about it because she’s I shouldn’t break this date.

[00:08:31] It’s, it says a lot about my character. And he’s no, you should go out with me. And so they really don’t say it’s love at first sight. It’s more like intrigue at first fight. So she really liked him because of that fight. 

[00:08:42] Scott: Yeah. A little bit of chemistry there, a little spark. 

[00:08:44] Jenn: Yes. And so this attention grew for each other.

[00:08:47] And again, she’s staying at this house. That her brother in law has rented with her sister and Robert is flying his B 17 every day and he likes to buzz the house. And so she just thinks that’s like the greatest thing. So by the end of the time there, she has to go back home in the fall, she’s going back to school, to college they’ve cemented their relationship and he writes her a letter back home, really asking.

[00:09:13] the typical GI letter. 

[00:09:16] Scott: Will you go steady with me or whatever? Wait 

[00:09:18] Jenn: for me. Yeah. Go steady for me. I have no one to write to. Be my girl. And her mother said she would have known that was what it was in the letter. She would have thrown it away. 

[00:09:27] Scott: Yeah. She would have steamed it open and throw it away.

[00:09:29] Yeah. I’ve read that. 

[00:09:30] Jenn: But Margaret Margaret. agrees. She’s very smitten with him too. so then he’s watching a movie with a friend of his. They’re thinking of what to name their plane. a lot of planes are named by captains. You’re going to get Enola Gay is, Tibbetts mother, like they’re named by, women or something personal to them and the crew really, it’s a morale thing, right?

[00:09:51] They want their pilot to be the best and to fly this aircraft and save their lives when they need it. So they want them to have this connection to their aircraft. he was going to call it little one, which was what his pet name was for Margaret. 

[00:10:05] Scott: Oh, okay. 

[00:10:05] Jenn: But they had just seen this movie where the ship on.

[00:10:10] in the movie was called the Memphis Belle. And he’s Oh, what a great name. I think we’ll name it the Memphis Belle. 

[00:10:16] The Iconic Nose Art of the Memphis Belle

[00:10:16] Jenn: And again, when we talk about art at this time and knows art, this is when you get these big pinup images that are in, especially men’s magazines at the time. This is like what men are fighting for these beautiful young debutants.

[00:10:32] You’re catching them in kind of a personal moment, whether like their skirts, flying up or something, or they’re coming out of the shower or something, something intimate. And it really was resonated so much with GIs. They would hang them on the walls and stuff because it was just like these iconic pictures of the women back home and what they’re coming home to.

[00:10:53] So the crew chief or the air crew chief of the Memphis Belle wrote to Esquire, which is a men’s magazine at the time. And he gave him the April, 1941 issue, which had a pinup girl who’s turned away on the phone and that became the image of the Memphis Belle. So it’s not Margaret Polk per se, but it’s that picture from the magazine with the Memphis Belle moniker, which is what, and 

[00:11:20] Scott: wasn’t it like modeled after Betty Grable or something like that?

[00:11:22] Jenn: Betty Grable. She’s like the 

[00:11:24] Scott: inspiration 

[00:11:25] Jenn: and inspiration with her swimsuit, high heels, hair done up with the. But the pin curls 

[00:11:29] Scott: and you and even in the video too, I found a photograph of Betty Grable in that kind of pinup style pose. And that the hair is like almost an exact match for that, the kind of the shoulder, right?

[00:11:40] Not the same exact pose, but you can very easily see from that picture I show in the video, how that translated over into This pinup art that they eventually put on the, on the aircraft. 

[00:11:49] Jenn: head is turned. Yeah. Like she’s on the phone. So you don’t really see her face. Like you see Betty Grable’s face in that photo.

[00:11:54] The 91st group’s artist, Corporal Tony Starcer copied then transferred the artwork on both sides of the fuselage and depicting her in the swimsuit. The Betty Grable picture is the white swimsuit, but in, on the Memphis Belle, she’s on a blue swimsuit on the aircraft’s port side, the left side, and red on the starboard side, which is the right side.

[00:12:15] And the image we cut to from the movie he’s speaking to the Nozart and it’s the right side It’s the red suit because most people when they think of the Memphis Belle they think of the red suit and so that’s what is depicted but know that it was on both sides of the aircraft and Memphis Belle is written in yellow like a cursive.

[00:12:34] So that’s where it gets its name and as it flies its missions, as an aircraft kind of cements its legend, it gets stamped with how many bombing runs they were able to do. So later that noseart is going to include the 25 bomb shape, one for each of their mission credits. And then they have eight Nazi swastikas, 

[00:12:56] for each German aircraft they claim they shot down. So That’s what it’s showing. 

[00:13:00] Scott: I didn’t realize that’s what that was. 

[00:13:02] Jenn: Yeah. 

[00:13:02] The Legacy of the Memphis Belle

[00:13:02] Jenn: And so it becomes, it moves into legend because during the beginning of World War II, aviation was very dangerous.

[00:13:11] especially for the Americans because the Americans decided to bomb during the day. And during the day, you’re just a, you’re a target. You’re a very easier target, easier target to spot, easier target to hit. And this is before the P 51s would escort the bombers. Once they started to do that, it saved a lot more bombers, but this was before they started to do that.

[00:13:32] So if you saw Masters of the Air, you’re dealing with the flak fields and the fighters that are trying to shoot you down. So for a aircraft to complete 25 missions at the time had not been done. 

[00:13:46] Life Aboard the B-17: Harsh Realities

[00:13:46] Scott: One of the things that people have to remember about these aircraft, right? And I like to foot stomp this as we go through and make these videos is the B 17.

[00:13:57] It’s not a pressurized cabin, right? And people think of aircraft nowadays and they don’t. Realize that. Hey, once you get above 10, 000 feet, you have to be on oxygen. It’s freezing cold up there. That’s why they are dressed in those thick jackets that they’re dressed in. And the reason that these B 17s were such legendary aircraft, at the time is like you said, they didn’t have a lot of vehicles.

[00:14:20] Fighter escorts. So they had a tail gunner, a top, the top turret, the bottom turret. they had all of these different gunners all over it just to protect itself as it’s flying out there preparing to carry out this mission of dropping the bombs.

[00:14:35] And I like to try and remind people of that because it’s easy to forget nowadays with modern technology and modern aircraft, how easy it is to quote unquote, easy it is to have a pressurized cabin. And here’s these guys climbing around, right? They’re a little bit smaller, a little bit trimmer than the average, American nowadays through this aircraft.

[00:14:56] And we’ve got, we’ve got. Yeah. 

[00:14:57] Surviving 25 Missions: A Herculean Feat

[00:14:57] Scott: Had a chance to see other similar aircraft, whether it’s a 29, seen the outside of a B 17, and it was no small feat to fit, a crew of 10 men in these B 17s, fly up to 20, 000 feet in the freezing cold, and carry out these missions. So 25 missions were, nothing to shake a stick at.

[00:15:20] Jenn: Yes. And like you said, you think of guns all over this aircraft, nose, tail, top, bottom, and four per side. And so you have all these men doing this, so they’re flying in formation and they’re firing their guns and you get caught up in a battle and you could hit someone by mistake or Things could jam, flack could hit you.

[00:15:45] And like you said, at one point in the movie, which is also True of a Life, he’s it’s negative 30 up here. Don’t take off your gloves, right? Cause people don’t, they didn’t realize it, how quickly you would freeze at that altitude. And you have to be on supplemental oxygen above 10, 000 feet because you get hypoxic, which is, I try to explain to the kids, it’s where your brain is starving for oxygen.

[00:16:08] You don’t realize it. 

[00:16:09] You slowly pass out. And so you just have to be on it. And so they are, they’re wearing the masks on in the movie, but you see the pilots up front. They’re not wearing like any kind of. wool hats or anything. They’re just wearing like their regular military issued covers with their headphones on.

[00:16:25] And yes, they’re wearing the leather with the sheepskin, which is still reminiscent today. We get issued the leather jackets because of what they wore in World War Two. But it’s because for them, it was essential. They were freezing. And I was also explaining to the kids, like you would fly for two hours of nothing to do 30 minutes of everything and then have to fly home for another two hours.

[00:16:51] with injuries with an incapacitated aircraft. So what these men did is nothing short of miraculous because you never knew what was going to happen and when you could go down and what was going to cause a problem. So 25 missions. Their first one was November 7th, 1942, and their last one was May 19th, 1943.

[00:17:15]

[00:17:15] Scott: May 17th. 

[00:17:16] Jenn: May 17th, they have May 19th here. Okay. It was not flown by Morgan. 

[00:17:21] Scott: Oh, okay. It was flown 

[00:17:22] Jenn: by Lieutenant Anderson. Oh, okay. 25 combat missions with the 3 24 bomb squadron. After that was your ticket? That was with everyone’s goal. But like most aviators, you’re very superstitious, so you try not to talk about it.

[00:17:39] You try not to embellish it, you try not to focus on it, and you just try to do your job because superstition runs very rampant in the aviation community. 

[00:17:49] So after they completed that mission, you’re done with your duty to America now, because this was one of the.

[00:17:56] first aircraft to do this. 

[00:17:57] The Love Story of Robert Morgan and Margaret Polk

[00:17:57] Jenn: It flew back to America to Memphis and Robert Morgan got engaged to Margaret Polk. He sent her a ring in the mail, which gosh, the mail must have been so much more secure back then. And they became engaged. There was an article in the Memphis newspaper. They were on the front page.

[00:18:16] They were going to have a spring 1944 wedding and they embarked on a America 

[00:18:21] Scott: war bonds to 

[00:18:22] The War Bond Tour: Spreading Hope

[00:18:22] Jenn: war bond tour, and they flew the aircraft. She went with them with the crew and flew it to different cities to raise morale and sell war bonds and show that it can be done. And she was the inspiration for the name of the aircraft.

[00:18:35] And here’s to lovebirds. People love the story. And they really just both embrace that. Now, no one knows for sure what quite happened. But they ended up breaking up after this war bond tour and she will never marry. He will marry. She will never marry. 

[00:18:52] She will always, Embrace the Memphis Bell moniker and she will spend her life with nonprofits Raising money for the Memphis Bell to keep it restored to keep it, updated in Memphis But I don’t know what happened between them, but they always remained good friends for the rest of their life.

[00:19:13] Scott: I Appreciate the story just that much more Because it’s so much more real life. 

[00:19:19] The Memphis Belle’s Legacy: A Symbol of Courage

[00:19:19] Scott: like sometimes some of the best movies You know that you see don’t always have that classic fairy tale ending They have that little bit of bittersweet there at the end and that’s what happened with this case 

[00:19:30] Jenn: yeah. And I think it’s just very indicative of the time. So many men, young men were going to war. You think every able bodied young man in America basically went to war and they were afraid of not coming back to someone, not being able to write to someone, not being able to have that conversation.

[00:19:49] person who is their love or their, someone who is thinking of them and missing them. So everyone tried to get that before they went, right? And didn’t mean you were compatible, didn’t mean that you knew each other very well, just means that you had that person and she was that person for him and he was that person for her.

[00:20:08] Now, whether or not, it went on, they were that during the war and so that aircraft became that legend because of her. when people come home and then you’re, day to day and who are you really, since we never really got to know each other before, it’s maybe things don’t work out.

[00:20:27] And that’s probably what happened in this case. But the Memphis Bell, I mean, it will always live in legend. it holds a little piece of the southern heritage, the bell like a southern bell, and the Memphis, because of the city in the south. And then the picture is so quintessential pinup, that it’s just, it’s one of those things, it’s a perfect storm.

[00:20:52] And it’s one of, when it comes to Nozar, to me, it’s one of the most tasteful. Yet sensual. It really is like a classic silhouette. It’s 

[00:21:03] Scott: iconic. 

[00:21:03] Jenn: And then for that aircraft to have done the first 25 missions, but that aircraft to go on and do the war bond tour for that aircraft now to be in the Wright brother museum in Dayton, Ohio.

[00:21:15] It’s just. It really is the perfect example of military aviation of World War II. 

[00:21:21] Scott: Yeah. And it was neat for us, right? For the video, we went and visited there’s a monument to the Memphis Belle and to that kind of whole era, right? And to Margaret Polk and the aircraft and the crew at, there was, what is it, Veterans Park or something like that not, not too far from the Overton Shell 

[00:21:38] So that was actually pretty neat. And then we went and visited her, her gravesite and saw kind of her, her family plot gravesite. So for the video, that was actually pretty neat to be able to do that, but just really learning more about the history of the Memphis Belle.

[00:21:51] And then we watched the movie just the other day with the kids. So it was. pretty fun to dive into the history of this. 

[00:21:57] Jenn: It was, and I like that they have that in Memphis representing both her and the air crew, because both of them in their own right have something synonymous.

[00:22:09] We visited her grave. She’s in Forest Hill Cemetery. She’s buried with her family Polk, and they claim to be relation to the 11th president. So it’s two locations you can really see in Memphis to honor. The story of the Memphis Belle. 

[00:22:24] Memphis Belle in Popular Culture: The Movie

[00:22:24] Jenn: We talked a little bit about the movie and its accuracy.

[00:22:28] The thing about the movie is not all those things happen to the Memphis Belle, but they did happen to some B 17 at some point during World War II. 

[00:22:41] Scott: If you haven’t seen the movie, essentially they kind of Hollywood, they quote unquote Hollywoodized the last mission. It’s very dramatic and things happen and people are shot and people are injured and this, that, and the other.

[00:22:52] That wasn’t actually how their last mission went. But to your point, that kind of encapsulated what a lot of other B 17 aircraft crew went through throughout the war. 

[00:23:03] Jenn: Yeah. And even the crew, the characters are composites. They’re not the actual names of the crew members and they bear little resemblance to the actual crew, but the composites of actual representatives of B 17 missions.

[00:23:18] And so you are getting a taste of what the B 17 did in World War II. It’s not actually what the Memphis Belle did in World War II. And there was no optimistic official celebration. the evening before its 25th mission. So that big party they have before the mission, that didn’t happen. And there was no special welcome for the crew when the mission was over.

[00:23:39] So there was no big party afterwards. We have a picture of them all happy. Yeah, there were there was 

[00:23:44] Scott: must have been a photographer there because there’s an amazing picture that really captures the emotion of the crew. And it’s literally the crew right after they landed running away from the aircraft, kind of Like, running towards the camera, you can see these smile on their faces and one’s getting ready to throw his cap up in the air.

[00:24:00] And it’s just, you can tell they’re just like running away partly because they’re trying to get away from the aircraft, right? There’s this thing that represented all this danger, but all the success as well as just their jubilation at completing their 25th mission. 

[00:24:15] Jenn: Yeah. So the two big parties you see in the movie are completely fictional.

[00:24:21] I don’t know, but that moment, that feeling for the crew. is an actual thing that happened. the movie is supposed to give you the general, generalization of what these B 17 crews experienced during World War II. Towards the end of World War II, when crews completed 25 missions, there would be more of a celebration, for them because in the beginning it was very difficult for a crew to complete 25 missions.

[00:24:46] Towards the end, as America passed over to the air superiority and the B 17s. the P 51 started to escort bombers, there was a better chance for your aircraft to make it through 25 missions. But yeah, I love the movie. I love the documentary. I loved making this. If there’s anything we didn’t hit, or you have any of the questions, please comment it.

[00:25:07] ButI think we did a good job talking about Margaret Polk and, and the Memphis Belle. 

[00:25:11] One last flight

[00:25:11] Scott: The Memphis Belle soared through the clouds, her engines humming a victorious tune. Inside the battered flying fortress, the crew sat in stunned silence. They’d done it. Twenty five missions completed, they were going home. Captain Morgan’s hands trembled slightly on the controls, the adrenaline of combat slowly fading.

[00:25:35] He glanced at his co pilot, Jim Varenis, who wore an expression of disbelief and joy. We made it, boys. A cheer erupted from every corner of the aircraft. In the tail, John Quinlan wiped away a tear. He’d survived. He’d see his girl again. Harold Locke emerged from the, his ball turret grinning from ear to ear.

[00:25:54] His lucky charm clutched tightly in his fist. As the coast of England came into view, a lump formed in each man’s throat. They’d left these shores 25 times, never knowing if they’d return. Now they were coming back for the last time. The 25th time. They could say that number now without whispering. 25 missions.

[00:26:15] The landing gear touched down with a screech and the Memphis Bell rolled to a stop. For a moment, no one moved. Then, as one, they began to laugh, to cry, to embrace each other. They climbed out onto the tarmac, legs shaky, faces smeared with sweat and grime. A crowd had gathered, mechanics and other aircrews, base personnel.

[00:26:33] Some started to clap, and soon the applause swelled to a roar. Least for those crew. Captain Morgan stood before his aircraft, his crew around him. They were no longer just men, they were legends. The Memphis Belle had brought them home one last time. As the small celebration began, each man silently said a prayer for those who hadn’t made it.

[00:26:53] They had survived, but the war wasn’t over. For now though, they allowed themselves to savor this moment of triumph, of survival, of hope,

[00:27:16] hushed and white with snow. It’s here in sunshine.

[00:27:27] I love your soul.