The Incredible Stranger

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On TCM(Turner Classic Movies) recently I saw this movie/story. It is so touching I wanted to share it. The Incredible Stranger (1942)is the story of an increbible stranger and his personal story. It is a small town called Bridgewood and takes place in 1892. The contracter of the small town receives a letter from a man in Chicago requesting him to build a four bedroom house for this stranger. When the house is completed the stranger appears to take residence. He silently gives notes in lieu of speaking and is highly mysterious. He is carrying two wooden boxes with him. Slowly he begins to order items which come to the local mercantile. The townspeople are very curious and check out what he has sent for. Clothes for a woman, young boy and young girl, and other items. Months go by, the townspeople wonder what is going on. When the stranger visits the town he using notes to make his requests and never says a word. One night the doctor is riding by the stranger's home in his horse and carriage and sees the stranger laying prone on the front stairs of his home. The doctor stops, takes the man inside and when he closed the door the glass window in it brakes. This stirs the horses of the doctor's carriage and the horse gallops into town. The townspeople notice the horse and carriage and thiresnks the doctor has had an accident. All the towns people go to the man's house. The doctor appears and says, "I know the secret now but I can't let you in." The people push past him and into the man's house. What they see is astounding. On one wall is all the man's tools. The house is fulled with all the trappings of a fine home. But, also in the living room is the wooden carving of a young woman, a boy and girl. Wooden carvings of what must be his family. Come to find out there was a horrible fire back in Chicago which took the lives of his wife and two children. He tried to rescue his family but was not successful. So badly were his lungs burned by the fire that his voice was taken. Such a sad story. He missed his family so much that his had a house built in the town his wife had been from and came back to cherish her memory and that of their two children.