Last year was a tough one for Ian Levett. But 2020 is starting out as a banner year — a star-spangled one.
Levett, 71, will be eligible to vote in an American election for the first time this year. He took the oath of United States citizenship on Dec. 9 in Indianapolis, along with 97 other immigrants.
As the oldest person to take the oath that day, Levett sat up front, and he received a flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol. Friends Geoff Thompson and Linda McQueary of Brown County were there to help him celebrate, along with his in-laws, Frank and Brenda Zody, and sister-in-law, Sallianne Zody.
His wife, Suzannah Levett Zody, passed away this past June after a sudden illness turned serious. She had wanted him to become a citizen.
“That’s the only person who wasn’t there that I wish could have been there,” Levett said.
Levett, an Englishman, had been living in the United States since 2002, after he and Suzannah married in London. He had a valid “green card” to live in the United States as a permanent resident, which wasn’t threatened by her passing. Yet, Suzannah had always worried that with the current political climate, someday, they were going to get a knock on their door saying he had to leave, Levett said.
This has been his home for 17 years.
A few months ago, “I thought it would be a good idea (to apply for citizenship); then, that worry would be out the window,” he said.
Luckily, he had a friend as an experienced guide to help him through the process. Thompson, a fellow Englishman, had done it five years ago.
Thompson had been transferred to the United States for his sales and marketing job for an industrial company about 34 years ago, starting on the East Coast and eventually making his way to Indiana. When he was about 60, he decided to become a citizen because he wanted the right to vote, and because his children and grandchildren are here.
“I’ve been here over half my life now … so it made a lot of sense,” Thompson said.
Thompson and Levett had met at the former Chateau Thomas Winery in Nashville after Levett moved to Brown County. Thompson was running the bar, and they discovered that not only were they both Englishmen, but they’d also grown up less than 10 minutes from each other in England, and had never met before then.
“He’d always said, ‘Eventually, you’ll want to do it, too,’” Levett said about Thompson and citizenship. “This year I finally took the bait.”
Becoming a naturalized citizen was “pretty simple,” Levett said — due to his age, the fact that he already spoke English as a first language, and that he had no criminal record. It only took three to four months, start to finish. “That was a lot due to Geoff; he had gone through it and he stuck with it with me all the way,” Levett said.
Levett had to fill out an application which included a background check; be fingerprinted; and undergo an interview, which included a quiz on American civics.
He was given a list of 100 possible questions the interviewer could ask him on American history and the workings of government. The interviewer would ask 10 questions and he had to get at least six right to pass.
Levett earned a perfect score.
As a non-citizen, Levett said he’d never been made to feel like he didn’t belong here. Yet, he was missing out on something important: Voting. He had been an active voter in England, even though his party never won.
That’s what he’s looking forward to the most, “making my opinion felt” in his adopted country.
“We’re extremely proud of him, and we’re extremely relieved,” said Sallianne Zody, who sat next to him at the ceremony. “Having lost Suzannah, we didn’t want to lose Ian as well.”
Levett said he thinks of Zody as a sister.
“Suzannah’s family are my family now,” he said.
“This gives them assurance I’m not going to leave. I’m staying right here.”
