Rusty Andersen was an American army veteran who lived near Chapman Farm when it was still the Aylmerton Community.  He was killed one night by a drunk driver on a road outside the farm (Ch 7).

When Robin attends her first service at the Universal Humanitarian Church, Jonathan Wace’s sermon includes the story of Rusty Andersen.  Wace says that Rusty ‘witnessed and endured atrocities’ during the Vietnam War, and after the war he began ‘wandering in Europe’, eventually settling at the farm.  Wace goes on to say that Rusty resisted his attempts to convert him into the church, but that one night when they were walking back to Rust’s cabin arguing about religion, Wace asked him ‘can you know for sure that nothing lies beyond this life, can you not even admit the possibility of such things?’ He said that Rust looked at him and said ‘I admit the possibility’ (Ch 10).

It was later the same night that Andersen was killed.  Wace claimed that when he cleared out Andersen’s cabin, he found a letter addressed to himself saying that he felt ‘at peace’ and had ‘received a sign’.  Wace then realised Rusty had died at the time of Holi, the Hindu festival (Ch 10).

Rusty was buried at the farm, and became the UHC’s ‘Wounded Prophet’. The date of his death, 19th March, marks the beginning of the church’s year (Ch 10).