We fear that the sadness we felt this week when we first heard of the death of Julia Wasserman will be more than a match for our ability to cheer ourselves up with memories of her for a long time to come. To have her move into history from being such a vital presence in town, even after her recent retirement from politics, seems too sudden a shift. It will take us a period of adjustment to get our bearings and move on without her.

Mrs Wasserman is most certainly a historic figure for Newtown. Over the 18 years she spent in the Legislature representing the 106th District and the people of this community, she compiled a record of service that made her Newtown’s most effective and locally beneficial state legislator. She is renown here and in Hartford for her monumental efforts in securing from the state ten separate properties totaling nearly 350 acres for Newtown. The land and buildings she got Hartford to bestow on this community had a value of tens of millions of dollars. She accomplished this not through political coercion, grandstanding, or backroom deals, but through patience and dogged persistence in working with bureaucrats and lawmakers to find mutual benefit in every deal.

The benefits for Newtown were many: 189 acres and more than 25 buildings at the main campus at Fairfield Hills; 20 acres for the site of the Reed Intermediate School; 26 acres for the “Al’s Trail” greenway along the environmentally sensitive Deep Brook; 38 acres for economic development off Commerce Road and another 34 acres of open space to buffer it; a row of residential houses along Queen Street, which the town sold for a profit; another 12 acres between Commerce Road and Mile Hill Road; 23 acres bordering the Potatuck Fish and Game Club. Her efforts on behalf of public health and environmental issues, two areas of special interest to her in both her public and private life, won her both respect and support from her fellow legislators and health and environmental advocates across the state.

While we recognize and applaud the impressive personage of Julia Wasserman at her passing, it is the person we will miss. She had traits that in anyone else might come off as intensity or irascibility. She was opinionated, passionate, intelligent, and vocal on issues important to her and the community. But she also listened carefully and could be swayed by a good argument. And best of all, she loved to laugh. She had a generosity of spirit that embraced friends and adversaries alike, understanding that in the scrum of public service in a democracy one could become the other overnight. Consequently there are many people who this week are mourning the loss of a personal friend.