Welcome to What We Remember, our reader-submitted obituary series. Submit your story for next Sunday’s installment here.
Kenneth Stewart, 70
Uncle Kenny’s midnight eclipse
The first time I met Uncle Kenny, I was 8. He told me to climb on the back of his new power wheelchair and hold on tight while he raced down the steep driveway at my grandmother’s house. His father had wanted to put him in an institution when he was born with cerebral palsy, but Grandma fought to keep him by her side. They went to every event between Baltimore and D.C. for decades, including the opera and any small-town big-band show around. When I was in middle school, we gathered in the front yard to watch a midnight eclipse. Kenny wept. “This is the most amazing night,” he said, as the moonlight disappeared. “So dark and so beautiful.” That was Kenny’s relentless joy. No matter who or what he lost, he let the beauty in the world fill his whole heart, again and again.
Kenneth Duane Stewart was his family’s memory-keeper. He died Aug. 15 in Centreville, Maryland. — By his niece Asha Dore
Jenny Chang, 69
Not pointless
It’s been almost two months that you’ve been gone. We miss you every day. You still wanted to spend time with your granddaughter Leia, see her grow up and enjoy Washington with us. You helped us get set up when we moved here in 2024 to work at the Belgian Embassy. You spent a good month here and had an amazing time. We all thought you would come back, but you never did. Cancer was too much. I’m grateful for everything you did for us. Most of all you taught me not to give up easily. I still remember you starting your studies as a nurse in Belgium and most people said it was pointless, you were already “so old” in your early 40s. I’m so happy you did what you thought was right.
Jenny Chang Pinares was a nurse and shop assistant. She died July 8 in Asse, Belgium. — By her daughter, Maite Morren
Ahn Bradley, 84
Alice at last
When I first met Ahn in the late 1970s, she claimed to be a very ordinary person who was most comfortable supporting those around her. She aspired to be Alice B. Toklas. In our 46 years together, she created a writing studio for me in every new home in the hope I would become her Gertrude Stein. But during those same years, Ahn founded a successful business managing vacation homes on the California coast. She mentored a dozen young employees, served on the boards of our chamber of commerce and local recovery center, and produced two albums for a group we called Ina Tee & the Arvees. She also became a photographer, creating magical worlds with dolls. I would venture to say that while aspiring to be Alice, she managed to become Gertrude. That being said, I am writing this in the last studio she created for me.
Ahn Bradley was an entrepreneur and photographer. She died June 11 in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. — By her wife, Ina Karish
Bob Greene, 95
Final ride out
As a senior at NYU, Bob threatened to do damage to the face of an obnoxious classmate who was trying to copy off his final exam in English lit. The student went on to become a noted filmmaker. Notwithstanding this flash of temper, Bob was a gentle, sweet person who had a bit of the elf in him. In his last decade he penned a series of stories about his long and crazy life, titled “Bits and Pieces, This and That.” For a pen name he chose Upton Downton. Here he also wrote my story, reminded that Gertrude Stein did this for her lover Alice B. Toklas. About our atypical meeting and courtship on a wilderness trail ride, he voiced my thoughts: “All I could remember him saying to me was ‘My name is Bob Greene’ and ‘Why don’t we ride out together?’”
Robert Judson Greene was a historic site manager who also restored vintage Mercedes and 19th-century farm homes. He died Feb. 24 in Spring Mills, Pennsylvania. — By his wife, Leslie Ellen Brown
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The Post is publishing reader-submitted obituaries as part of a weekly feature, What We Remember.
The post The photographer who created magical worlds with dolls, and other lives we’ve lost appeared first on Washington Post.
