Bonnie Rosenstock wrote about the Make Your Mark in the Park program at Tompkins Square Park. The East Village Parks Conservancy created the program eight years ago to honor residents and help fund the Park’s gardener and elm tree watch.
There are currently 155 pavers around Temperance Fountain, with another 24 set to be placed later this spring. Each stone costs $250.
The article prompted me to look at the various tributes, which I hadn't done in several years ... and I spotted the name of someone I met in the neighborhood about 14 years ago.
Johnston, a writer for Time Out, died of colon cancer on Oct. 26, 2008. You can read more about him here.
6 comments:
and don't forget Steve Vincent, a neighborhood writer that was killed in iraq after he wrote about the secret "killer squads" in white vans (my words) that was published in the NY Times.
Andrew would absolutely hate having a paver placed here in his honor, and that's why he was the type of guy I absolutely loved. RIP, Andrew.
I like the "will you marry me" tile. :)
Andrew was my neighbor, we lived across the hall from him since he moved into our building many years ago. I believe his mother arranged for the paver in the park and also made a donation for the preservation of a certain tree in the park in his honor as well.
I don't know if Andrew would have hated that stone so much -- I think, perhaps, his mother may even have discussed it with him in advance of his passing......what a heartbreak for his family to lose him so young.
I was glad to discover the photo of the stone placed in Andrew's memory and also to read that some of Andrew's friends have seen it. Although it may not seem fully characteristic of Andrew, the stone is there at his request. About two months before he died, Andrew told me one day about the small tributes to pets on the dog run fence posts (the former dog run, replaced later in 2008) and then about the paving stones. After declaring that he was sure he would make it and that the cancer would not take his life, he asked if I would place a paver there in his memory if he did die, apologizing for making an "egoistic" request. As his mom, I didn't think this was egoistic and assured him so. After all, we all want to be remembered and have some trepidation about being forgotten after we leave this life. So I promised Andrew that I would have a stone placed in his memory and, there it is. He very much loved the park and spent a lot of time there with his dog Grover. So it is a very fitting place to remember him, I feel.
Thanks for sharing, M.
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