Last year, I awoke the morning of September 4 in a motel room, having
attended my cousin's wedding the previous day. Drowsily preparing for
the trip home and reflecting on this time of new beginnings, I was
jolted from my reverie by the sober words of a news anchor. Steve Irwin,
otherwise known as the Crocodile Hunter, was dead. Though I'd long
suspected that the seemingly reckless abandon with which Stevo embraced
the world's most dangerous creatures might eventually be his undoing,
he'd dodged deadly injuries on so many occasions that I had begun to
regard him as indestructible. I shook whispers of inevitability from my
mind as I stared at the screen in mute shock, devastated at the loss of
such a vibrant, passionate individual, a man who crammed more living
into each and every day than most of us manage in a lifetime, who
committed himself wholeheartedly to preserving the world's wildest
places and most misunderstood species. John Denver and Rubeus Hagrid
rolled into one. What a guy.
Because I only get basic cable, I never watched as much of Crocodile Hunter
as I wanted to, usually only catching it at my grandparents'. I
realized after his death that I wasn't really familiar with his wife
Terri at all, though she was an integral part of his show. When I
watched her interview with Barbara Walters last fall, I was mightily
impressed with her warmth and passion, her kindness and intelligence.
This year, I caught her again on Good Morning America, and when I learned that the reason for this interview was the publication of a memoir recalling her life with her husband, Steve and Me became a top priority on my reading list.
Terri doesn't put on any airs in her book. She writes from the heart,
and a sense of profound conviction pervades each page as she invites
readers to share in the exhilaration of her fateful love-at-first-sight
meeting with Steve, the wonder of their outback expeditions together,
the setbacks they faced and triumphs they achieved in their
determination to live as "wildlife warriors". I already had a big soft
spot for Steve before I read the book, but within the first few pages,
I'd fallen head over heels in love with the guy, utterly enraptured by
Terri's dizzying descriptions. As the book progressed, she continually
demonstrated what an outstanding individual Steve really was:
courageous, driven, emotionally open, hilarious, hard-working, utterly
devoted to his family and his cause.
While Terri, aside from
some ill-advised reptile wrangling while great with child, seems to have
been a bit more level-headed than Steve, her passion for conservation
clearly runs just as deep. In fact, their initial meeting came about
while she was on a trip to Australia to discuss placing cougars,
threatened in her native Oregon, in zoos there. Steve's reptile park was
tiny at the time, and it certainly wasn't the sort of place that would
house cougars, but Terri believes that destiny drew her that day to the
man she would marry. What followed were fifteen years of partnership, of
palpable love and respect. Maybe Terri slipped on the rose-colored
glasses in the wake of her husband's death, but it certainly seems as
though the two were soul mates and enjoyed as successful a marriage as
any couple could hope for, an especially impressive feat once The Crocodile Hunter brought the limelight and public scrutiny.
The Irwins certainly had their share of difficulties - financial
limitations in the early days, the ever-present danger of Steve's work
that led to many injuries, stretches of time away from each other, the
particularly painful sudden death of Steve's mother in 2000 and outcry
over Steve's decision to include his infant son Bob in one of his
crocodile shows - but they faced them together. Back when Terri and
Steve first met, she couldn't imagine uprooting herself to relocate in a
strange land across the world, but when their whirlwind romance led to a
comically casual proposal, she knew there could only be one answer. The
epigraph of Ruth 1:16 - the "your people shall be my people" speech -
sets the tone for the book perfectly, hinting at Terri's deep faith and
her absolute devotion to Steve and willingness to completely change her
life for him.
Throughout the 19-chapter book, she repeatedly
notes that whenever she and Steve were together, she had a sense that
nothing could harm either of them. Apart, there was vulnerability. Every
time she reiterates that conviction, it takes readers one step closer
to the tragic conclusion, and I got the impression she was working
through some guilt over having passed Steve up on his suggestion that
she, Bindi and little Bob postpone a planned skiing trip by a couple of
days in order to extend their own family vacation together. If they had,
they would have been with him the day he died, and perhaps things would
have played out differently. He might not have had the encounter with
the stingray at all.
But Steve never thought he would pass the
age of 40. He was convinced he was going to die young, which was part
of the reason he was so determined to squeeze every last bit of living
out of his time. It also was one of the reasons he was so anxious to
have children; he hoped they could carry on his legacy, just as he had
done for his parents. Bindi, only eight at the time of his death, has
already taken up the challenge, spreading the conservationist message
through her show Bindi the Jungle Girl.
This is a
powerful book. I laughed many times as Terri described some of her
outlandish adventures with Steve, whose sense of humor kept him always
at the ready for a little mischief. I remember one of the moments that
stood out in the interview with Barbara Walters was when Terri said what
she missed most about her husband was that he was fun. That
clearly shines through in this book, and the included photographs
illustrate his zest for life. In the acknowledgements, Terri reveals
that she cut about 700 pages from her first draft. I can't help but
wonder what fantastic stories we're missing out on; maybe she should
write a sequel!
In Steve and Me, we get a portrait of a
vivacious man who adored his family and who felt called to the purpose
of protecting some of the world's most maligned creatures. Steve
inspired millions of people with his passion for wildlife. Terri's
tireless efforts, including writing this ode to their life together,
ensure that his work continues.
For information on how to be a Wildlife Warrior, visit www.wildlifewarriors.org.
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