Close and Far at the Same Time: Remembering Alan Shepard
Alan and Louise Shepard On April 9, 1965, NASA introduced the Mercury 7 astronauts to the world—America's first group of space travelers. One of those seven was Alan Shepard, a name etched into history as the first American to travel into space. But for me, that name also echoes across my family's stories, childhood memories, and moments of near-crossing paths that life never quite completed. Alan Shepard was born and raised in the farming part of Derry, New Hampshire—what used to be called Londonderry. My father, born on April 9 years before the Mercury 7 were announced, grew up there, too. He attended the same school and remembered Alan well. Back then, Londonderry was the kind of community where everyone knew everyone else. Alan was even the local paperboy for a time, making the rounds in a neighborhood where my father's family lived. In fact, Alan and my aunt, Minerva, were classmates. As boys will do, he liked to tease her about her name—Minerva-Manure, he called he...