Blizzard Brought Joyful Beginnings For Some

The Blizzard of '78 brought hardship to many, but for some, it was a time of joy and new beginnings.

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Blizzard Brings Baby, Friendship

NewsCenter 5's J.C. Monahan reported that the Logan family of Milton will never forget that February Monday the blizzard hit. Mary Logan was pregnant and two days overdue when the snow started falling that morning.

"I think I spent more time calming other people down," she said. "Especially my mother. My mother was a wreck."

Mary's husband, Dick, focused on the logistics of making it from their home to the hospital in Boston.

"We knew that that would be a trip and a half if we had to go to the hospital on our own," he said. "So we were pretty anxious that whole night, I think."

The next morning, with the snow still falling and roads covered, contractions began. A phone call was placed to Milton police.

"Within about 10 minutes, we could hear the roar of a front-end loader down the end of our street," Dick Logan said. "When the neighbors saw, likewise, what was happening, they all came out with shovels."

Making it to Boston was out of the question. Quincy was as far as they could get.

"Every nurse from emergency and physicians, they all came out," Mary Logan said. "They had a stretcher. They were very concerned."

Daughter Kerry wouldn't make her appearance until the next day.

"I was told they decided to have no more children after me because I caused too much trouble," she said.

It would be a week before Kerry would join big sister Amy at home. Since then, her claim to fame has been her blizzard birthday.

"Every time I see people from the neighborhood ... they will say to me, 'Will you ever forget when Kerry was born?'" Mary Logan said.

It was a beginning of a different sort for Susan Hahsey and Judy Jellison. They became best friends because of the blizzard.

They were neighbors in Revere but had never met until Hahsey's husband came home with a story to tell.

"He said, 'There's this girl up there with this kid, and she's trying to dig out the car and there's nowhere to go and there's no food,'" Hahsey said. "And I said, 'Maybe we should go up and do something.'"

"Ever since then, we just clicked," Jellison said.

They spent the long days stranded along the coast playing games with their children and becoming fast friends.

"We had a ball," Jellison said. "They'd come over every night. What else are you going to do?"

Jellison was a single mother at the time. She said relying on each other was the catalyst for a great relationship.

"They were just a great support because my family was in Charlestown and there's no way you were going to get to them," she said.

It took several feet of snow to bring the two of them together, and now they say nothing can tear them apart.

"I don't know what it is, but I don't want to question it, because whatever it is, it will be there in 25 years," Hahsey said.