A Girl with Guts

“Two bloody weeks in Lawrence High and then I had to give it up because she had got me the job.”

Some people amaze you with their wonderful gutsiness and the bold honesty that exits their mouths; Nora happens to be one of those people. Nora was born on March 24, 1919. She grew up in Lawrence, Massachusetts during the Great Depression, both of her parents working in the mills. She recalls very fondly the times her parents would take her and her siblings to the Strand Theater for only 10 cents. When Nora was 14 her father died, and when she was 16 she dropped out of school to support her family. She recounted to me the two “bloody weeks” she had been in high school before she had to drop out to support her family.

Nora worked in the mills until she got married at age 19 and moved to Lowell. “I wanted to get married and have kids so much. The first time somebody said ‘will you marry me?’ I said ‘yes.’ You know, stupid.” Her first husband’s name was Ellery, a proper Englishman with proper ideas about what a proper wife should be; this was not what Nora wanted to become. She had four children with Ellery before, one day, while he was at work, she made the bold decision to get on a bus with her children and go to her mother’s house in Lawrence. Her mother told her, “you’re here to stay.”

Ellery, up in arms about his wife’s improper behavior, came to her parents’ house to bring her home. Nora’s sister opened the door and nearly pushed him over the railing and down two stories to get him to go away. Needless to say, Ellery never returned.

Nora met another man by the name of Joe, her neighbor’s brother. She got along well with him and his family, and he liked her kids. Nora married him, but in time she found that he was incredibly stubborn and impossible to get along with. She divorced Joe, telling her family that she had gone “from bad to worse!”

At this point, Nora was done with men. She had asserted herself as an independent woman and worked at Raytheon. A girl she worked with set her up with a man named Matthew as a date to her bridal shower. At first Nora was reluctant, but fate had something in store for her. When they met, Nora could have sworn she “was in Heaven.” He drove her home that night and they knew they were meant to be.

Of course things for them were not perfect. He had just recently separated from his wife, though they were not yet divorced. One day Matthew’s wife came to confront Nora and tell her to stay away from her husband. Nora didn’t know it at the time, but Matthew’s wife was sick and died a couple weeks after the encounter. Matthew’s teenage sons, Ken and Matt, went to live with Nora. Matthew and Nora got married at St. Joseph’s church and moved into a house in Salem across the street from the racetrack. Nora remembers their travels to Ireland, England, and “so many places I’ve forgotten some of them.”

After 35 years of marriage Matthew died at age 85. “As far as I was concerned, I wasn’t living until I met him,” she recalled fondly. Matthew was cremated, and Nora will be too when her time comes. “He’s there in that little cubby hole on the wall, waiting for me. And I’m not ready yet. I’m having a ball, I really am,” she said. Yes, Nora is 25 at heart with all the daring of youth, but with all the wisdom that her years have brought her.

Jillian DiPersio is a sophomore at Windham High School. After learning the stories her own grandparents, she has been interviewing the elderly. She has been able to dig up some incredible bits of history from the lives of local residents, as well as learn about people who are the products of a different generation. If you or someone you know would like to share your stories, contact Jillian at jillian@dipersio.com.