By David Grossman

The elder patriarch of the family was quite a character.  He used to come up to The Lunenburg Ledger office at least twice a year to change his subscription address and chat about the town. 

He was one of the last “snowbirds” to leave town for his winter home in Sarasota, Florida. 

Like many subscribers who frequent the sunshine state, delivery of his newspaper was spotty.  Sometimes his papers came a few days after it was mailed from Lunenburg while other times it would take a few weeks.  If Mr. Ewen did not receive his paper in a reasonable amount of time, he would call the office. 

Like we tell most folks, we told him to check with the postmaster and mail carrier on his end.  Mr. Ewen would do his due diligence and he usually got his paper delivery straightened out. 

He would come home from Florida in early spring to help out with the syrup gathering.  He would then come back to the office and change his address back to his Lunenburg address and enjoy the Lunenburg spring time.    Then Mr. Ewen would re appear at the office again at the beginning of the summer to change his address to his summer residence in Kennenbunk, Maine.   Then we would chat about summer in Maine and he would be off to enjoy the summer. 
 

A few years ago, Mr. Ewen had a very difficult time getting his newspaper so we started mailing his paper  first class.  He still had problems, so we started putting his paper in a brown envelope because Mr. Ewen thought that the mail carriers were throwing his paper out.  Finally, he started getting his newspaper a few days after it was mailed.  That seemed to solve the problem.  After receiving the Ledger for four or five weeks in a row, Mr. Ewen would call the office to thank us for mailing the paper first class in the brown envelope.  Life couldn’t get much better!

Every year was a ritual.  After a while, I could gauge the seasons by Mr. Ewens visits to our office.  He gave us his address dates very carefully so that he would not miss one issue of the Ledger.  

But this past Fall, we noticed that Mr. Ewen had not visited the office.  We  thought that maybe he wanted to spend more time with his family in Lunenburg.   Then Christmas came and went and Mr. Ewen still had not come up to the office.  So when we learned that he had passed away last week, with a heavy heart, we understood. 

We will miss Mr. Ewen and his conversation, his travels, and most importantly his tenacious effort to receive The Lunenburg Ledger wherever and whenever possible. 

Sadly we must say good-bye to one of our most colorful and dedicated readers.  All of us here at the Ledger extend our combined sympathies to the Ewen family.  His presence at our office will sorely be missed.