No Greater Love
Mom runs back in for her son, dies with him. Boston Herald:
One neighbor says she’s not surprised that 51-year-old Linda Cahalane ran into her burning Lawrence home to save her 20-year-old son, only to perish with him in the blaze.
“He and his mother were best friends,” said next-door neighbor Roberta Cardello, describing the love Cahalane had for her son, Sean. “I’m sure she didn’t even think twice – that would have been something she would have done. He was her baby.”
Neighbors said Cahalane escaped the 11:50 p.m. inferno Sunday with her husband, Russ Cahalane, but as flames leapt out of the back of the house, the couple couldn’t convince Sean to jump from a second-floor window over the garage.
“They must have woke Sean up, but he didn’t get out and he was hanging out his bedroom window. His mother yelled, ‘Jump. Jump,”’ said next-door neighbor Roger Twomey, who is also a city councilor.
“Linda had gone back in to get Sean out, but it was just too late. The firemen couldn’t get in because it was so intense,” he added.
Twomey said Russ Cahalane was taken to the hospital as a precaution after his wife and son were pulled from the family’s Leeds Terrace home.
Neighbors described Sean Cahalane, who lived with his parents, as a developmentally challenged young man who worked at the Market Basket store in Andover.
“He was dearly loved by everybody because he was so personable and so innocent and a beautiful, beautiful young man,” said neighbor Claire Navaria.
The fire started accidentally, according to the Lawrence Fire Department.
Topics: courage, motherhood
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:45 am Comments (1) on Tuesday, November 4, 2008
One Response to “No Greater Love”
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November 4th, 2008 at 9:34 am
How sad, but beautiful.