There...And Then Gone

Our home looked down on the shoreline in Ipswich; in particular (in 1978) onto the Pavilion, a building which had sat on short pilings adjacent to the shores of Ipswich Bay for 50 years.

I had fallen in love with my husband at a dance there on our third date in 1950. There were many social gatherings that followed and happy memories of the place. When that blizzard was upon us, we watched the waves advancing closer and closer to the Pavilion. I took out the binoculars. Family members begged me to relinquish them as the water and ice surrounded the one-story building, but I refused.

And then one huge wave broke through the windows on the ocean side, flowed across the dance floor and out, and succeeding waves lifted the building off its pilings, depositing it in the middle of the nearby road in a pile of rubble! The Pavilion was no more. Today one would never suspect the building had ever existed there.

-Jean Emerson

A Live Saved

By February of 1978, I had been on hemodialysis since October of 1976. My only hope of living to see my children to adulthood was a kidney transplant and I had no living donor.

That Monday morning, I received a call that a donor kidney was available. Although the first snowflakes were starting to fall, no one was prepared for the blizzard which would ensue. My aunt drove me to Deaconess Hospital where, within an hour, I was undergoing surgery - totally oblivious as to what was going on outside.

The subsequent days were outstanding for the dedication of the medical staff who worked throughout the lack of relief and shortage of supplies. As exhausted as those doctors and nurses had to be, each one was determined that, through their sheer dint of willpower, I would get better - and, I eventually did.

To this day, I owe so much to their efforts and the generosity of the family of my unknown donor. As I mark the anniversary of the "big blizzard" as a rebirth for me, I am mindful that another family marks this as an anniversary of the loss of a young woman whose death gave me life. She is never forgotten.

-Janet Delorey

Having A Cold One

I was stuck at work, Roxbury District Court, for 3 days. Fortunately, we had plenty of food and coffee. The Chief Judge liked to cook. He and I were the only ones left.

There is a tunnel between court & police station. I called over, told them we had hot coffee, food. They came over in droves and we kept cooking & feeding them. The week prior I had went shopping in the North End and had plenty. Cooked, pasta, meatballs, sausages, ham hocks, veggies.

The judge while cooking was sipping a can of beer. A police officer asked if he could have one -- I have only a couple left for myself. Minutes later, 3 police officers arrived from the station each carrying 2 cases of beer for the judge. We didn't ask, but knew it came from the evidence locker.

-Joseph A. Drago