Calcutta Telegraph, India
May 22 2010
Back in grandad’s building
– Irene happy to be home in Stephen Court after 57 days
POULOMI BANERJEE
The granddaughter of the man whose name Stephen Court bears is back
home in the blaze-ravaged building after 57 days.
Irene Harris (Martin), whose grandfather was Arathoon Stephen, sat
back on Friday evening in flat No. 27, lit a cigarette, and said:
`It’s definitely nice to be back home.’
She and husband Jimmy ‘ last seen in public the day after the fire at
Stephen Court seated on the Park Street pavement opposite their house
(in picture) ‘ are busy getting their house up and running again.
`When the house is empty, dust settles. And the servant has not come.
So my husband and I are doing our best to put everything in order,’
said the 84-year-old.
Their neighbours have ensured there is water in their second-floor
flat in wing IV, but without the lift the two senior citizens are
confined to their home. `Both my husband and I need canes to walk. We
cannot negotiate the stairs,’ said Irene, between playing gracious
hostess to a guest and rewinding to March 23.
`I was sitting at home that day when a friend who was passing through
Middleton Row called up and said `Irene there is a fire in Stephen
Court’. I said, `What rubbish. There’s never ever been a fire at
Stephen Court’…. You see, the fire was at the other end and we
didn’t feel it inside. But it could have spread.’
>From then on, a tiny quarters in Sir Catchick Paul Chater Home, better
known as Armenian Home, off Park Circus was home for Irene and Jimmy.
`This place is nice and we are very well taken care of but home is
home,’ Irene had told Metro earlier this week.
Back in her sprawling but sparse Stephen Court flat, won’t she be
haunted by all the controversy surrounding the building her
grandfather once owned? `That’s old history,’ she shrugged, before
adding with a twinkle in her eye, `but the building does bear his name
‘ Stephen.’
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