‘I feel a connection’: Atlanta doctor from Lewiston recalls small-town feel, tight community

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Dr. Stanford Plavin had an idyllic childhood.

“I was born in Lewiston, Maine,” he said. “I spent the first 14 years of my life there.”

Lewiston, a city of about 36,000 towards the southern end of Maine, is most famous for hosting the infamous rematch between Muhammed Ali and Sonny Liston.

“They say, ‘Lewiston, Maine! Where is that?’” Plavin said. “Unfortunately, now, everyone knows for the wrong reasons where Lewiston, Maine is.”

Army Reservist Robert Card is alleged to have killed 18 people and wounded over a dozen more in a shooting Wednesday night, a death toll nearly equaling Maine’s annual homicide rate.

The burst of violence does not mesh with the Maine Plavin grew up in.

“I mean, they’re wholesome down-easterners,” he said. “They’re self-sufficient and hardworking.”

While Plavin hasn’t lived in Maine for decades, he still has family living in New England.

“My sister has kids that were on a sleepaway in Maine,” he said. “They had to be escorted home early because the State of Maine is on lockdown.”

Now, the place Wallethub recently named the 13th safest city in America is reeling. Plavin’s idyllic memories — and maybe the memories of all who care about Lewiston and ever called it home — are changed forever.

“You’re almost feeling like you have a sense of loss because of the people’s loss there,” Plavin said.

The pain is still fresh and still being grappled with. For Plavin, his home is now Georgia, but his heart is 1,200 miles away.

“It affects me,” he said. “I feel a connection growing up in Lewiston, Maine.”

Copyright 2023 WANF. All rights reserved.