Survivor Of Fatal House Fire Remembers Victim

From: WSTM-TV - Syracuse,NY,USA - Apr 21, 2004

Edited by Dave Pieklik
4/21/04 4:25 p.m.

Donald Weeks is alive thanks to a stranger who pulled him from a burning home Monday in Parish. But his longtime girlfriend, Geraldine Stewart, is gone, killed in the same fire he narrowly escaped.

Monday, as the couple was sleeping in their home at 404 South Railroad Street, in the Village of Parish, a fire started and spread quickly. Weeks was able to get out but lost his grip on Stewart as he crawled through a window.

As he comes to grips with what happened, Weeks says the response from the community has been overwhelming.

"I guess she had more friends than I thought," he said.

Weeks looked at a floral arrangement that an anonymous person sent, saying it was a prime example of how many people Stewart touched.

Stewart was well known in the neighborhood, and as a writer with the Oswego County Weeklies, where she had several weekly columns. She was also president of the Upstate New York Cochlear Implant Club.

"She kinda turned the club around, got it more active, more people involved in it," said Weeks.

She was also known for her cats, most of which died in the fire.

"She was a terrific woman, I'm going to miss her," said Weeks.

© Copyright 2000 - 2004 WorldNow and WSTM, a Raycom Media Station. All Rights Reserved.