Please excuse me if I’m not commenting for awhile. Real life calls. In two days I did more than in the past two years nineeight months. Not that I was counting.I don’t know if I have been getting all my gmail–some comments didn’t come. if you emailed me in the past several days and I haven’t answered. please send another.
This was a writing exercise I did for The Thought Cafe
There was a great picture of a man in the Nineteenth Century and we were asked to write an obit for the person. I did it in two distinct obit styles that I melded together, and am now going to add the words. Two are easy for this post. One’s a bitch.
The man turned out to be Michael Faraday I didn’t know that then. Just call me brilliant 🙂 The picture is in the Thought Cafe. His eyes are both sweet and bubbling with curiousity. I would think he’s in his 40’s or 50’s but it’s hard for me to tell age in a century not ours.
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July 9, 2007, The Andover Connecticut Times
by David Harmon, Editor and Publisher
They called him the old man of Wilton Street, though Allan Stewart really wasn’t very old. They said it respectfully for the semi-recluse who dressed in Nineteenth Century costume gave wise counsel to the many townspeople who dared venture into the gas lit study decorated in dark brown with books by scholars through the ages. Mr. Stewart was particularly fond of Maimonides and Thoreau.
Nora Stewart, his wife left the house and moved next door with their three children: Ian, Emma and Ronald, 25 years ago. Still, she had dinner with him five nights a week.
Some people found the separation to be easy to understand. She is so gregarious. He was such a private person.
Mrs. Stewart refused to give his age out. No record of his birth could be found, nor could a Social Security number, tax returns or any identifying information. Mrs. Stewart is better known as Nola Damon, the prolific and immensely popular romance novelist. Mr. Stewart is not listed on Mrs. Stewart’s tax returns.
They arrived in Andover, as a young couple, around 35 years ago when they bought the old Parsonage on Wilton Street. Mr. Stewart was rarely seen, but Mrs. Stewart was quickly known for her thoughtfulness, stories for every occasion, community spirit, colorful make up and dress.
She let it be known that Mr. Stewart was an intellectual of international renown, and at a very young age had decided to devote his life to study and writing papers.
It has long been long assumed that Mr. Stewart was really Geoffrey Rankin, the never seen Pulitzer Prize winning author of biographies of the Transcendentalists.
Mr. Rankin’s publisher will neither confirm nor deny that. Mrs. Stewart’s eyes seem to light up as she half smiles and says: “think what you wish”
Ian, 38 and Ronald 35, live in LA where they co-write and produce “Trevor,” the HBO mega hit about a man from the nineteenth century who time travels into the 21st Century to solve crimes using the guidance of ancient scholars. They have always acknowledged that the character was based on their father. They issued a statement through their production company stating how honored they were to be the sons of such a marvelous enigma.
The statement read that they were unwilling to discuss their father further as they have been too deeply affected by their gentle father’s heinous murder. “We have crossed a threshold from which it will be difficult to recover.”
Emma Stewart, 36, the actress is in seclusion with her husband Len Denton, the actor and their three children: Isabella, 13, Noah,10 and Katie, 3. Mr. Denton asked that their privacy be respected.
The Mayor of Wilton, Frank Skye said that no words can express the sadness he feels at the tragic death of his old friend by Dr. George Gray. Mayor Skye’s police statement reads: We were having our weekly argument on “What is truth,” when Dr. Gray snorted: “I can’t take this farce anymore,” took an old pistol out of his pants pocket and shot Mr. Stewart once through the head. Dr. Gray then shot himself.
Dr. Gray remains in a coma and his wife Betsy Gray refuses to speak to anybody until her husband regains consciousness.
The Coroner issued a statement saying it was known that Dr. Gray suffered a series of small strokes some months ago, and was probably in the gripe of another when the murder occurred. The District Attorney issued a statement saying that Dr. Gray’s statement was probably meaningless, though it will be looked into.
The last murder in Andover occurred in 1830.
We are saddened by this murder. Though Mr. Stewart rarely ventured out, he was very much a part of Andover.
With just a few questions, and some statements he could solve complex problems. As his neighbor, Lacey Harmon, 42, said: “When I moved to Wilton Street, I stopped going to my therapist. I no longer looked for answers through religion, or any of the usual methods. Mr. Stewart enabled both my husband and myself to live fuller richer lives.”
A Memorial Service was held this afternoon at Town Hall. Mrs. Stewart was unable to come and left no statement.
Allan Stewart’s influence will be known forever in Andover. Mr. Stewart’s monthly column in The Andover Times, Reflections, can be found on the Internet. While normally it gets hundreds of thousands of hits a month, our server broke down under the weight of many million the last three days.
We would like to unravel the mystery of his early years, and understand what work he really did Yet we must rinse ourselves of curiousity and take great pleasure in having known such a marvelous enigma.
Strangely every picture of Mr. Stewart appears to have been taken in the nineteenth century. Most people in Andover find this reassuring.
Perhaps Becky Harmon, 18, summed it best when she said: “every great town needs a great thinker from another era.”
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Read this article
where a Surgeon General under Bush talks and try to tell me that from this alone there isn’t a clear cut case for impeachment. I do wear anger and hence politics now as a shroud.
We in New York have special reasons, along with the people affected by Katrina, for knowing that this government isn’t just ineffectual but dangerous. This article is further proof in another equally important area.
Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches.
This doesn’t happen in a democracy.
Now Miers was instructed not to even appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the firing of the attorneys
My life is rather full these days. It’s not just summer but the mid of July, my favorite month. Yet like so many other people I do believe that the future of this country is at stake. Is the 08 election going to be another farce?
I have personal goals and I truly want them to come true. I can’t be sidetracked into volunteer work. In 99 I volunteered at a First Amendment group that was working against the Impeachment and uh ended up coordinating a project. That’s happened to me several times. Time seemed endless then. It doesn’t any longer.
Please support me in my efforts not to spend all my time working against the Bush regime. Do something, anything to get this country back on track.
Let this be the summer we stopped caring about Paris Hilton and began caring about the rest of our lives.
This was interesting, Pia. I think it’s interesting that she was so outgoing, he was so secluded… and the two boys ended up more like her and the girl ended up more like him.
I enjoyed reading it. You used those words very well.
I’ll let you into a secret – the photo is of Michael Farraday.
That was spectacular, Pia! This line: “every great town needs a great thinker from another era†is a great aphorism for this era.
This is my favorite 3WW you have done.
I love so many of the lines. This is but one:
Strangely every picture of Mr. Stewart appears to have been taken in the nineteenth century. Most people in Andover find this reassuring.
I guess it would sound strange to ask you to write more obituaries, but this was excellent.
I love your imaginary life for the man, his wife and children, especially the first obit. Great job.
We may disagree about how far this country’s off track, but I love your blog nevertheless.
Have a great weekend, Pia!
This was wonderful. I enjoyed every second of it.
Please do not let blog or blog comments distract you from what you have to do.
If anybody ordered me to mention them 3 times on every page of my speech, I’d mention them alright. Probably in some close proximity to the words “ass-hat” and “dipshit.”
that was a very creative 3WW–you developed such interesting characters.
As for Georgie Boy, I shutter every time I hear him talk, afraid of what he might do next, wondering how the American people could be so stupid (but then, we were so stupid in 2000, were we
You have a gift for telling a story. I enjoyed it very much.