08/03/2026
Here is a market story for you. A community, our community was rattled with this one. My family gained an angle. This community gained a hero.
Some stories have a way of finding their way home.
This Gremlin pictured below was made by my cousin, Mike Stoddard, as a high school art project. Somewhere along the way, it ended up mounted to the front of a van that traveled the country following the Grateful Dead with his closest friends. It saw roads, concerts, and who knows how many adventures over the years.
Then, against all odds, it found its way back to our little corner of Swanzey.
When it came into Hidden Treasures, Mike’s sister Deb from Deb’s Craft Corner recognized it immediately. A friend who traveled with that van confirmed it was the very same piece Mike had created all those years ago.
Mike wasn’t just an artist. In 1999, he gave his life trying to save children from a house fire in our community. He didn’t stop to think. He acted.
Heroes don’t always wear uniforms. Sometimes they’re the quiet neighbor across the street.
Standing here holding something Mike made as a teenager feels like the universe folded a page in half and let two moments touch. A piece of his creativity wandered the world for decades, only to come home to the people who loved him.
Life is strange like that.
Rest easy, Mike. Your courage is remembered. Your art is still making people smile. And your story is still being told.
“Boston Herald 21/02/99 reports
N.H. mom charged in fire deaths of son, neighbor
by David Weber
Sunday, February 21, 1999
NORTH SWANZEY, N.H. - A New Hampshire woman was held
without
bail yesterday after being charged with second-degree
murder in the
death of her 8-year-old son who died in a fire she
allegedly set in
their small home, authorities said.
Michelle Wessling, 35, was arraigned yesterday in the
psychiatric
ward at Cheshire Medical Center in nearby Keene.
Authorities did not lodge any charges against Wessling
for the death
of her heroic neighbor, Michael Stoddard, 34, who
rushed into the
burning home at 12 Grove St. to save her 5-month-old
son.
``Mr. Stoddard was a neighbor who put forth extreme
effort to
rescue Kalen,'' said New Hampshire Assistant Attorney
General Malinda
Lawrence. ``Ultimately, as a result of that, he lost
his life.''
Wessling and her four children, Brittany Adams, 10,
Kalen Adams, 8,
Dylana Wessling, 3, and Nathan Wessling, 5 months, all
were in the
home when the fire erupted around 12:30 a.m. Friday.
The blaze
gutted the house in one hour.
Public defender Richard Guerriero called the fire an
accident.
``This was a very horrible accident. She's distressed
and distraught,''
he said. ``Her son is dead, and her neighbor is
dead.''
Lawrence praised Wessling's daughter, Brittany Adams,
for helping her
mother and siblings escape.
``She was a brave and levelheaded 10-year-old girl,''
Lawrence said.
Brittany Adams reportedly ran to Stoddard's 20 Grove
St. home to get
help and he ran into the burning home.
Stoddard carried 5-month-old Nathan away from the
blaze, though
officials were unsure whether the infant already was
outside when he
reached him.
After carrying the infant to safety, Stoddard shouted
frantically,
``Kalen's still in there.'' He then collapsed on the
ground and later
died.
Kalen was found trapped between a washer and dryer
inside the
house, according to neighbors.
The boy died of smoke inhalation, the state medical
examiner said.
The cause of Stoddard's death had not been determined.
Stoddard's brother-in-law, who declined to give his
name, said
Stoddard lived alone with his dog and best friend,
Cody, in a house
across the street from his mother and stepfather.
``He loved to bike, walk and canoe,'' said one of
Stoddard's friends,
who also declined to give his name. ``Anybody who knew
Mike knew
who Mike was. Anybody who didn't, all they have to do
is look at that
house right there,'' the friend said, pointing to the
charred structure
next to Stoddard's house.
The brother-in-law said Stoddard spent the hours
before the fire
watching ``Storm of the Century'' on TV. He added that
his
18-year-old daughter - Stoddard's niece - was working
on a
homework assignment on who she regards as a hero when
she was
informed of her uncle's death.
``She'll have no problem completing that assignment
now,'' the
brother said.
Robert and Wanda Bonin, who live directly across from
Wessling, said
the four children who lived there were noisy but
polite.
``It's terrible. I can't believe it,'' Wanda Bonin
said, shaking her head
in sadness.
Her husband said Kalen Adams loved to pet their dog,
Christie.
``He'd always come over and say, `Can I pat Christie?'
''
Another neighbor said Kalen suffered from attention
deficit disorder
and had a cleft lip.
The neighbor said Michelle Wessling had alerted her
children's school
bus driver to keep an eye on Kalen because other kids
liked to pick on
him.
``They were polite kids,'' Wanda Bonin said. ``They
would always call
us Mr. and Mrs. Bonin. They wouldn't even run on our
lawn. They'd
play on their own. They were just good little kids.''
Lawrence said the second-degree murder charge does not
mean
Michelle Wessling intended to kill her child. She said
the charge
involves ``reckless and extreme indifference to the
value of human
life.''
She would not say how the fire started, but said the
New Hampshire
Fire Marshal's Office has ruled it an arson. However,
Michelle Wessling
has not been charged with arson.”
