Tag Archives: tribute

Obituaries, Opinion

Ruth Blaser’s Fair Haven Mic Drop: Soaring with the Principles of an Iconic Dragon Gadfly

We are gathered here today … in gratitude for a Fair Haven gadfly. Mic drop.

Gadfly. It’s a caricature of those governing body meeting regulars, the characters who persists in challenging authority or the status quo, holding officials accountable, prompting change or even self-reflection. Gadfly. It’s not the true menace it sounds like. In fact, there’s a lot of beauty in a gadfly. Call it a dragon gadfly — a colorful, principled mosquito eater, ridding the environment to which it always returns of welt-wielding pestilence.

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Obituaries, Opinion

Remembering Fair Haven’s Garry Allers: A Lifetime of Relative Kindness Passed On

It’s all relative. You’ve heard it before. “He was like family.” Like. And sometimes people just say someone was family, no “like” involved. Family.

That’s usually because sometimes, DNA be damned, someone is no doubt family to someone, or many, in every way but the genetics. And sometimes, that’s just because a person’s actions in life scream a louder familial compassion and love than their genes — like a bear hug that squeezes all the good into us.

One girl called forever Fair Havenite Garry Allers her uncle. Uncle Garry was laid to rest yesterday. While on this Earth, he didn’t flinch at the relative reference from his adopted niece. It was the truth in every way that mattered, after all. Yes, it’s all relative.

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Local Life, Opinion

Catching Fair Haven Rays: Remembering, Emulating Ray Taylor

Ray Taylor weeps for those lost at a Memorial Day ceremony in Fair Haven
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

“Cornerstone: A stone which lies at the corner of two walls and unites them” (often the starting point of a building), hence, figuratively, “that on which anything is founded.” 

Fair Haven’s cornerstone has been yanked from it rightful place. Its walls full of solid hometown brick and mortar are now wobbly — crumbling with sorrow. One of the last of the borough’s icons has taken his final trek down Fair Haven’s River Road.

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Obituaries, Opinion

In Memoriam: Remembering Former Newspaper Ad Sales Rep Susan Wilson, 68

“Susan was a free spirited and fun loving woman, with an infectious laugh and mischievous personality.”

That’s what loved ones said about Red Bank resident, former local newspapers’ ad sales rep, flight attendant and substitute teacher, Susan J. Wilson, 68, who passed away at her home on Nov. 2.

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