A Veteran, Father, Husband, Brother, and Hero By: John Cuddy – May, 2022 On April 16th of this year, a reunion was held on the shore of Rock Pond in Georgetown, Massachusetts. Family and friends gathered to remember a Haverhill Veteran, Frederick “Buddy” Hansen, a husband, brother, and dad, who drowned in this pond while […]
By: John Cuddy – March, 2022 Raised in Arlington, Massachusetts in veterans housing, and now living in Pelham, New Hampshire Scott Hyder, is the founder and current President of Hidden Battles. The non-profit organization strives to help preserve the healthy minds of veterans, fire fighters, police officers and other first responders. The organization’s mission is […]
A neglected chapter of World War II has been recalled in Old Orchard Beach with the donation and prominent display of a flag honoring the memory of a U.S. Merchant Marine from Massachusetts. As a boy growing up in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Old Orchard Beach resident Dave Twomey lived upstairs from his uncle and […]
By: John Cuddy – Nov. 2021 WESTPORT, MA -I met Pam Melanson and her father Rene “Cap” Parent at the Wheelhouse Diner in Quincy, Massachusetts on a beautiful Saturday morning. Pam, who hails from Westport, MA, served our Nation in the US Navy Reserves for over fifteen years. She was called up on active duty […]
By: John Cuddy – Oct. 2o21 Lawrence native Arthur Goulet attended St Anne’s Grammar School and graduated from Lawrence High School with the Class of 1955. Shortly after finishing high school, he joined the US Navy. He completed Military Basic Training at the U.S. Navy Training Center at Port Deposit, Maryland, more commonly known in […]
By: Brian Genest – Oct. 2021 Blatant hypocrisy. Shameless double standards. Profiles in cowardice. All were on display at the recent meeting of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee. Not one establishment Republican had a word to say about Tom Mountain, the former MassGOP vice chair who has stepped down from the party’s executive committee. Not […]
By: John Cuddy – Aug. 2021 Dracut’s Bob and Jeanette (Jenny) Iby, celebrated their 75th Wedding Anniversary on July 4, 2021. Married on July 4, 1946, after Bob finished his tour with the US Army Air Corp, as a Bombardier on a B-17 Flying Fortress. The couple attended high school together in Burlington, VT, and […]
By: Brian Genest – Aug. 2021 The sound of silence is stunning. And very telling. From Swampscott and Shrewsbury to Beacon Hill and beyond, some previously-vocal politicos are suddenly biting their lips. Not one establishment Republican has a word to say about Tom Mountain, the former MassGOP vice chair who stepped down from the party’s […]
By: John Cuddy – July, 2021 Just a few weeks ago, I was talking with Bill Bateman at the Merrimack Valley Golf Course, Bill connected me with fellow Central Catholic High School alumni Arthur Moriarty, of the Class of 1958. Bill graduated from Central Catholic in 1961, as did I, graduating in 1979. Bill had […]
By: John Cuddy – Feb, 2021 This is our third US Navy Seabee, who after serving in the Navy, became a police officer. Tom Murphy Jr. is a retired Lawrence Police Officer, who later retired from the Merrimack College Police Department as well. He grew up across the street from my father Jim, and my […]
By: John Cuddy – Dec. 2020 Retired New York City Police Officer, John Joseph Ratomski, tried to enlist in the Marine Corps the year after Pearl Harbor, in December of 1942. Joe, as he was known to his friends, was found to be color blind, and the Marines rejected him for this reason. The US […]
By: John Cuddy – November, 2020 LOWELL – A native of Lowell, Massachusetts, Donald Gelineau served in the Pacific Theater during World War II for twenty-four months. Growing up in a large French-Canadian family during the Great Depression, he hunted, fished and gathered nuts/fruits to supplement the family’s food. Don reminisces of his time as […]
Oct. 2020 LAWRENCE – While the physical effects of COVID-19 have been widely documented, 100-year-old Rita Ducheneau has struggled with isolation at Marguerite’s House Assisted Living on the Mary Immaculate Health/Care Services campus in Lawrence. To ease her patient’s loneliness, Merrimack Valley Hospice Case Manager Meredith McNeilly, RN, BSN recently presented a tablet to Ducheneau […]
By: John Cuddy – Sept. 2020 PELHAM, NH – An alumnus of Methuen’s Tenney Memorial High, Class of 1945, where he played football and ran track, Joseph Ducharme is a lifelong Pelham, New Hampshire resident. Back in the 1940s, Pelham, New Hampshire was too small for a high school, so the town sent the children […]
By: John Cuddy – April, 2020 PELHAM, NH, New Hampshire’s Tony Marino grew up in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He was an athlete at Chelsea High, graduating with the class of 1940. His wife, Loretta, graduated from the same school with the class of 1944. Tony was attending a family wedding with his mother when the news […]