Linda Alice Dewey

Jackson Citizen Patriot

Features
Sunday, June 19, 2005

Former Adrian woman writes Irish ghost story
by Gail Slaughter
Editorial Aid

It's 1922 and Aaron Burke has become a ghost. He can't "cross over" from Earth until he comes to terms with what's happened in his life -- being kidnapped and dragged to America, growing up with an abusive father and losing the wife he deeply loved.

Linda Alice Dewey, formerly of Adrian, tells the story of the Irishman's life and afterlife in "Aaron's Crossing: A True Ghost Story." She said she encountered Aaron's ghost in an abandoned cemetery in Leelanau County.

Although she'd written songs and commercial jingles, she'd never been interested in writing a book. But when she heard Aaron's voice -- in Irish dialect -- in her head, she sat down at her computer, honed her "spiritual listening skills" and typed in what he told her.

There was "amazing detail," Dewey said. She did

no research until later, when she found that "many facts checked out."

Dewey grew up in Detroit and came to this area when she married an Adrian man, Norm Bauerle. She taught music in Pittsford schools and sang at the Croswell Opera House and in the Lenawee Community Chorus and Siena Heights choir.

She's taken Aaron's story, added some original Irish-type songs and developed a "reader's theater" production that she's performed in the Traverse City area.

"Aaron's Crossing" is available locally at Best Books in Jackson Crossing and Nomad bookstore at Westwinds Community Church, 1000 Robinson Road.