Life Sketches by Terry Berkson

'Lady with Horse'

The first time I heard about Lady Ostapeck was about 20 years ago, at my friend Buddy Crist’s house on Angel Hill, outside the hamlet of Schuyler Lake. I was sitting in his living room when I noticed a picture hanging on the wall. It was of a man dressed in buckskins standing in the doorway of a weathered cabin. When I got up to take a closer look I realized it was Buddy appearing very authentic in clothes I never saw him wear before. He looked terrific.

“Who took the picture?” I asked.

“Her name is Lady Ostapeck,” Buddy answered. “A while back I was gassing up at Stewart’s in Richfield Springs. She was filling her tank on the other side of the pump and kept looking at me. I mean really looking—for a long time. Finally she comes around the pump and says, ‘Are you finish?”

“I’m still pumping,” I answered.

“No, are you Finnish—are you from Scandinavia?” she asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“You sure?”

“Ma’am, to the best of my knowledge I’m Irish, Indian and German.”

“That may be, but I’d like to take your picture.”

It turned out that the woman, who was then in her 70s, was a famous photographer of Finnish descent. She wanted Buddy, who had the “right look,” to pose for pictures she planned to use to help celebrate Independence Day in Finland. They made an appointment and a week later my friend spent an entire day trying on clothes in a costume and prop-cluttered house while talking with Lady Ostapeck as she tried to bring to the surface a certain spirit she saw in him. When Buddy’s wife Cathy, who had been sitting in their car for hours, came around to see how the photo session was going, Lady ushered her away, saying that her presence would affect the aura.