Sept. 1, 1951-Nov. 24, 2015

My name is Ike Gingrich and my brother died at 2 p.m. near Charlotte, N.C., where he lived for 30 years prior to moving to Deltaville and Mathews five years ago. He died on a Tuesday the same day of his mother exactly two years ago and three hours before her death. She finally came and got him and relieved him of his physical and mental pain. 

He initially lived on a boat in Deltaville that someone burned and then bought a one-acre parcel of land in Mathews where he lived in his car with his cats. Art was a recovering alcoholic and a member of AA for 30 years and many individuals knew him in the Charlotte, N.C. area. Art never married. Art was a great photographer, artist and understood history as he was well read. Art was a “talkaholic” and could talk to you for hours.

Art was Catholic and went to a small church in Mathews where he liked to talk a lot to the members. Not only was my brother ill with cancer but he knew he had made some bad decisions in life and accepted death at the end as part of his life and journey. Art was a law-abiding person and never wished harm to anybody or anything. For those individuals who took his personal property without asking and took advantage of his generosity and those that harassed him with excessive fines because of his boats, he prayed and forgave all of you and I know he did because he told me. If Art did not personally thank those in Mathews who provided him with medical help and medicine at the hospital, hospice and Gina Kane at Social Services, his cousin Louie, the person who took him in his house when it was cold and the person who brought him a chest of ice every day, I thank you for him. He truly needed help. He is now gone and in a better place where he will be needed.