Artist’s Bridge, Newry
Each month, Down East editors select our favorite response to “Where in Maine?” Here is our favorite letter from June’s photo.
I had just arrived home from the Maine Veterans Cemetery in Augusta. I brought my mail in, opened my Down East, and there was my bridge. Being from Wisconsin, it was the first covered bridge I’d ever seen. The bridge is on the Sunday River Road and is sometimes referred to as the Artist’s Bridge. My husband, Charlie, grew up on that road. Even though we were still in Wisconsin, we chose this bridge to be married on in 1984. It was a rainy day with local flooding. Charlie was afraid he would drop my ring and it would be swept away. The day was not without sadness. Charlie’s mother, Helen, had been planning our wedding. But she had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and had been in a coma since. Our wedding gift from his parents was a beautiful oil painting of the bridge done by local artist Helen Morton, a good friend of his mother. Charlie’s father, Asher, cried when we opened it. Back to 2024, Charlie had been in declining health due to heart issues. I had asked him to try to hang on until our 40th wedding anniversary. It was not to be. He was a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam, a command sergeant major in the Army Reserves, and a career police officer.
— Donna Runnels of Burnham, Maine
