It’s quite an extraordinary things, really, that an elderly man in poor health who had lived in assisted care for the past decade would have touched the hearts and souls of so many people in the small town where he lived. He may have been the most beloved person in our small town.
More than 100 people came to his Memorial Service on Wednesday, and his bench in Main Street – where he sat almost every day the weather permitted – was graced with flowers.
I went by to take a photo of it and Mickey was sitting there, Mickey is stepbrother of George Forss, he is also often on this bench told me that Bruce often helped him get a cup of coffee on cold days. Mickey says very little, and stays in the shadows, but he was also touched by Bruce. “I know Bruce,” he said, “this was his bench.”
It may have been the longest conversation Mickey and I have ever had, and we talk often. I think sitting there was his way of saying goodbye.
I got a dozen e-mails and other messages from people in the town day, all of them offering stories about Bruce’s kindness and sweetness and empathy.”We loved driving by and seeing Bruce on that bench, sometimes we walked by and brought him coins to look at.” An elderly woman who lived near the Mansion said Bruce noticed that she always bought her groceries at the same time Wednesday morning, and seemed to always be standing outside of the IGA when she came out, offering to carry his groceries home.
A library worker (the library is on the other side of the park wrote me to say she burst into tears this morning when she drove to work and realized Bruce would not be sitting there any longer.
“I knew he wasn’t well,” she said, “although he never complained. And her ewas this sick man, nearly as old as I am, helping me every week. He was special.” He was special, it seems, and some people are at work getting a plaque made for Bruce that will go permanently on his bench.
One of the Mansion residents told me yesterday Bruce came by to knock on the door of her room every morning to ask if she needed anything at Stewart’s, the convenience store, even when he was sick.