Thomas Stewart, Part 1

My great grandfather Thomas Stewart was an enigma to me. Thomas was my grandfather (Pop) Pretty's father-in-law. From the way my grandfather always talked about him, I think that he looked up to Old Tom, as Sam called him. Sam and Ida named their second son Tom, so the older Tom got the extra adjective in his name.

                            Thomas Stewart

There is a great story about Old Tom. On his way home from the train station on a cold March day, Pop dropped in to visit Old Tom at his house opposite the train station on Water Street. Tom's wife, Mary, had died four years earlier. Sam went into the house but not seeing Tom, climbed up the creaky stairs and opened his bedroom door.  Tom, fully dressed, asleep on top of the bed clothes, woke suddenly and instantly sat upright.

Old Tom blurted out through a newly awakened haze, "Are you going to the race?"

Not knowing what he was talking about, my grandfather asked, "What race?" It was too early for 'the races' as locals called the regatta, held in August. 

Tom replied, "The human race, the race for life."  

Pop didn't say anything because he didn't know how to respond to that statement. After a few quiet moments together and a brief chat about family things, Pop continued on home.

Within a month, Thomas Stewart was dead.

Pop always referred to Old Tom as a religious man. Sam and Ida had lived with her family after they got married and they stayed close by even after the Prettys got their own place. Ida was close to her family throughout her life. Pop saw how Old Tom lived and prayed. Of all the family my grandfather had lost, Thomas Stewart was the only one he had ever spoken about to me. Since Pop's father had died when he was seven, Old Tom was a father figure for him. Sam really missed him and kept his memory alive throughout his own life.