Person Page - 258

     Paul Edward Cardinal was born on 1 March 1948 at Brighton, Massachusetts.¹ He was burned in a crib fire when an electric vaporizer overturned in November 1948 at 24 Allston Street, Allston, Massachusetts. He appeared on the census of 1950 at 34 Ridgemont Street, Boston, Massachusetts, in the household of Walter Francis Cardinal and Alta Florence Wood with William R. Cardinal, Russell Walter Cardinal, Mary Margaret Cloherty, Arthur Edward Cardinal, George Francis Cardinal, Peter Russell Cardinal and Walter Francis Cardinal.² Paul Edward Cardinal received First Holy Communion on 21 May 1955. He was confirmed in May 1960 at St. Theresa's Church, Watertown, Massachusetts. He went to Camp Sachem, a Boy Scout facility on Gregg Lake in Antrim New Hampshire, various times during his Scout years.³ Paul Edward Cardinal was a member of the Watertown High School Cross Coutnry team in 1964. He moved with Russell Walter Cardinal and Mary Margaret Cloherty to 98 Barnard Avenue, Watertown, Massachusetts, on 22 November 1968. Paul Edward Cardinal married Linda Khachadoorian on 3 May 1970 at Watertown, Massachusetts. He was 22.³ Paul Edward Cardinal and Linda Khachadoorian were divorced in 1985. Paul Edward Cardinal died on 21 June 2021 at Community Hospice House, 210 Naticook Road, Merrimack, New Hampshire, at age 73.³ The cause of death was rectal cancer.³

     Walter Francis Cardinal was born on 25 June 1949 at Brighton, Massachusetts.¹ He appeared on the census of 1950 at 34 Ridgemont Street, Boston, Massachusetts, in the household of Walter Francis Cardinal and Alta Florence Wood with William R. Cardinal, Russell Walter Cardinal, Mary Margaret Cloherty, Arthur Edward Cardinal, George Francis Cardinal, Peter Russell Cardinal and Paul Edward Cardinal.² Walter Francis Cardinal went to Camp Sachem, a Boy Scout facility on Gregg Lake in Antrim New Hampshire, various times during his Scout years.³ He was confirmed in May 1963. Walter Francis Cardinal was a member of the Watertown High School gymnastics team in 1966. He moved with Russell Walter Cardinal and Mary Margaret Cloherty to 98 Barnard Avenue, Watertown, Massachusetts, on 22 November 1968. Walter Francis Cardinal married Karen Brown on 2 August 1969. He was 20.³ Walter Francis Cardinal was a Federal Express employee. He died on 10 January 2021 at Boston, Massachusetts, at age 71.³ The cause of death was brain aneurysm.³

     Obituary: Wally and I shared a bedroom when we lived on Dexter Ave. At one point, Kevin also slept in the same room. I have two strong memories from those days.

Wally would sometimes roll from side to side in his bed, and he would do it quickly. I'd wake up and hear him rolling. It seemed like he would burn more energy rolling back and forth than he would gain by sleeping after he finally fell asleep!

At some point, we had a small TV in our room. Wally was probably in high school by that point. He would sometimes watch a late-night TV show called The Outer Limits. If I woke up and that was on, I'd be a little freaked out because the show was weird and scary. I'd ask him to turn it off or change the channel, and he would, but only until he thought I was asleep again.

My older brothers would sometimes let me play sports with them. That was a sacrifice for them because I was so much younger. I remember playing basketball with Wally and his friends and later realizing that I improved when playing against those older boys so much that playing against my friends was easy.

Having an older brother was a big asset for me when living in the east end of Watertown in the 1960s. It was not what anyone would now consider a rough area, but there were cliques that were mostly based on ethnicity, and in our small neighborhood, there were no Irish kids my age. That meant I had to convince the Italian, Armenian, or Greek kids to count me in. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. When they didn't, I might get bullied by one or more of those groups. If the bullying got bad, I knew I could count on Wally to intervene.

The most memorable intervention involved two Armenian brothers, Paul and David.

Paul was a couple years older than me, and David a couple years younger. Paul used to wait for me to walk by his house on my way home from school. He'd push me around and threaten to do worse. One day, he punched me a few times and then threw me into some bushes that scratched me up pretty good. I went to Wally and asked him to beat up Paul so he'd stop bullying me. Wally suggested that I handle it myself by bullying David every time that Paul bullied me.

That seemed like good advice, and I bullied David the next day. I punched him a few times and threw him into the same bushes where I had been the day before. I told him to tell his brother that if he bullied me, David was going to pay the price.

That's not what David did. He told his father instead. The next time his father saw me, he threatened me, saying, "I'll beat you until you're retarded." Sorry for the insensitive language, but that's exactly what he said. It scared the hell out of me.

I went back to Wally and asked for help. He was old enough to know that Paul and David's father was not actually going to beat me up, but he also knew that the father was not going to beat him up, either. Wally paid a visit to Paul, beat him up a little, and told him to stop bullying me. That put an end to it.

Later in life, my wife and I watched how Karen and Wally raised their children, and what a good job they were doing. We learned from them and copied as much as we could.

I guess the summary is, Wally was a great older brother.

     Kevin Patrick Cardinal was born on 14 February 1964 at Brighton, Massachusetts, and was the godchild of Peter Russell Cardinal.¹ Kevin's godmother was Maureen Baggeson, but this was changed at some point in his life when we lost contact with that family. Kevin Patrick Cardinal moved with Russell Walter Cardinal and Mary Margaret Cloherty to 98 Barnard Avenue, Watertown, Massachusetts, on 22 November 1968. Kevin Patrick Cardinal was the Best Man at the marriage of John Francis Cardinal and Maureen Susan Lovett on 29 August 1986 at Blessed Sacrament Church, Saugus, Massachusetts.² Kevin Patrick Cardinal married Kathleen Tottan on 13 February 1994 at Boston, Massachusetts. He was 29. Kevin Patrick Cardinal was a Federal Express employee. He and Kathleen Tottan were divorced. Kevin Patrick Cardinal died on 12 September 2021 at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at age 57.³ He was cremated on 18 September 2021. an unknown person dropped some of his ashes at the grave of Russell Walter Cardinal and Mary Margaret Cloherty. He also spread some of his ashes at their boyhood homes.⁴

     Obituary from Peabody Funeral Homes & Crematorium (290 Mammoth Road, Londonderry, Rockingham County, New Hampshire), 13 September 2021:

     Obituary from The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), 13 September 2021: