Sunday's Obituary - Anders Bennett Hansen

Andy Hansen

Last week I posted the obituary of Andy's mother, Alice Hansen.  It is only appropriate that I follow up with Andy's obituary. 

A year before his death Andy was interviewed by Ithaca College Gerontology student Peter Reilly.  Peter visited Andy twice a week and then wrote up a paper describing their conversations. But in the course of that assignment, Peter and Andy became good friends. When Peter arrived at Andy's house located on the highest hill in Newfield, he found a 78 year old disabled man who had just lost his wife to cancer, was homebound during cold weather, and who had to have an aide come in twice a week to bath him. But what Peter learned through his assignment was that Andy Hansen had a love of life, animals, God and people. And that is exactly the person we came to know and love.  We miss you, Andy.

Obituary for Anders Bennett Hansen

Newfield – Anders Bennett Hansen, a resident of Newfield for almost seventy years (sic) [Andy was 79], died peacefully on Feb. 20, 2001 at his home on Barnes Hill Road. He was born in Edgewater, NJ on November 9, 1921, son of the late Jens J. and Harriett Alice Hardman Hansen. He lived with them and his brother, Harold on Seeley Hill for many years and graduated form Newfield Central School.

He married Natalie Elaine Bonfilio on March 12, 1966 and lived with her on Barnes Hill Road until her death in November 1998. He worked in many farming and lumbering jobs as a young man, also for the Tompkins County Highway Department for more than twenty years, and later for private employers.

He wrote for local newspapers during his long life in Tompkins County, first as the Mule Skinner and more recently, a column called “Looking Back” in the Newfield News. He was writing an article and preparing another at the time of his death.

A memorial service and burial will be announced in the spring. Bangs Funeral Home will be in charge of arrangements.

Source: http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20010224/obituaries/309103.html

Sunday's Obituary - Mrs. Alice Hansen

I didn’t know Alice Hansen.  But the reason this obituary is meaningful to me is that I did have the honor of knowing, for just a bit, her son Anders. 

I met him in his later years because his late in life marriage prompted him to convert to Catholicism, and that is when we ran into him at church.  Andy and his wife Natalie lived in the sparsely populated hills of Newfield, NY.  We visited them on occasion, and then him a little more often after Natalie passed away.  He proudly showed us the variety of vegetables and berries growing in his garden, and always insisted we take something home with us.

Andy had some disabilities that I suspect provided him many challenges in his life.  We enjoyed the company of this kind intelligent person; a person who didn’t let his disabilities deter him from enjoying life.

It is interesting how these distant memories are invoked by reading an obituary of a person I never knew. 

Obituary of Mrs. Alice Hansen

Mrs. Alice Hansen, 61, of Seely Hill, Newfield, died unexpectedly Saturday, Jan 24, 1953 at Tioga General Hospital, Waverly.  She is survived by her husband, Jens Hansen of Newfield: two sons, Anders and Harold Hanson, both of Newfield; two sisters, Mrs. Corine Brennan and Mrs. Muriel Curry of Sebastopol, Calif; two brothers Louis and Fulton Hardmann of New York City; a half sister, Miss Everetta Waters of Montreal, Quebec, and 4 nieces. Funeral services will be held at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Allen Funeral Chapel, Newfield, with John C. Booth, Jehovah’s Witnesses, officiating. Burial will be in Jehovah’s Witnesses Cemetery, Lansing Road.

Bearers were Andrew Patana, John Goodwin, Wesley Crance, Waino Knuutila, George Ruuspakka and William Brashear.