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COVID-19 Gratitude 2: Getting My Health Back

There are many things I’m grateful for amid this pandemic. My health is one of them. A year ago, I would have been at much higher risk of catching COVID-19.

Mood Music:

I’m certainly not bulletproof. No one is, based on the limited science we have on COVID-19 at the moment. But mentally and physically, I have much more fight in me.

This time last year, I was hovering around 290 pounds. I was on blood pressure medication, the CPAP was struggling to punch through airways under pressure from a fatty throat and I was getting migraines constantly. Weight-control measures that had worked in the past didn’t cut it anymore, especially the food plan and 12-step program I was following via Overeaters Anonymous (OA), which I wrote a lot about earlier in the history of this blog.

My experience is not a condemnation of OA or anything else that works for others. Many people need a 12-step program when addictive behavior is the root of their pain. It simply didn’t work for me. OA felt too much like a cult. I don’t like answering to people on a good day (except my wife), so calling a sponsor every day to report on everything I’d be eating didn’t work. I abandoned the program but kept the food plan and didn’t replace it with something better suited to my needs.

My health slid down and my weight shot up. It took me seven years to find something that worked better. My body paid a price in the meantime, as did everyone around me.

I had less energy, less patience, and a lot less clarity of mind. I fell into more frequent bouts of deep depression.

By May 2019, I hit bottom. My wife had found success using the Noom app and tracking her daily steps with a Fitbit, so I decided to give those things a try.

The combination has worked out because it’s allowed me to use data to manage my behavior. The numbers on the Fitbit tell me when I’m not moving around enough and compels me to get up and take walks. Noom allows me to track my calorie intake throughout the day to stay in check and has helped me make better food choices though its green-yellow-red classification system.

Using that simple combination, I’m down to 213 pounds — my lowest weight in more than a decade. I can’t remember the last time I suffered a migraine. I fit in airplane seats comfortably again (not that it matters at the moment), and I’m not getting winded every time I walk a few steps uphill. I’m at the point where I can maintain my weight and be in fighting form. I’m going to 210 just for the hell of it.

I had to turn things around under normal circumstances. That I have maintained it amid this unprecedented global crisis makes me feel grateful and lucky.

Life is always hard. Better to have more strength for the fight.

That may be obvious, but it’s not always easy to follow. Times like these show us that we must try harder.

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COVID-19 Gratitude 1: Work That Matters

I’ve always been driven by my work — as a journalist, as someone responsible for completing the business my father left behind five years ago and especially in the role I play in the cybersecurity industry.

Work is certainly keeping me going during this pandemic. Amid physical distancing, there’s extra time to reflect on the last couple years.

I’ll talk more about the family business another time. For now, some words about my main job.

Mood Music:

I’m fortunate to work in information security. I get to do my part, however small, in fulfilling several of society’s fundamental needs: keeping businesses running, keeping society safe from bad guys who would do us harm through our web-based tools and keeping people healthy.

In the past month, my company has released a lot of research on business continuity, protecting vital tech infrastructure from attackers looking to exploit our preoccupation with the pandemic. It’s also released research on helping medical institutions keep cyber threats at bay as they try to treat a growing influx of patients. Our content is usually for paying clients, but we’ve made all COVID-19 research publicly available.

The crisis adds fresh clarity to why I took this particular job two years ago.

I’ve always thrived on challenge, going for roles outside my comfort zone in a desire to push my personal evolution to the limit. I had a successful job as an infosec journalist but wanted experience actually doing the things I wrote about. That led me to Akamai Technologies, where I helped with incident response, in-house security training and development of a security research machine. I wanted to immerse myself in content marketing for a security vendor, so I went to Sophos, working with lab researchers to put their findings into writing. My current role at IANS returned me to familiar territory: I’m in an editorial director role, this time with security professionals who are members of our faculty.

This current role is probably the hardest, most rewarding I’ve ever had. I work directly with the company CEO — a career first — oversee development of a curriculum and work a lot more closely with clients than past roles allowed.

My mental wiring isn’t a natural fit for this work. But I’ve learned a ton and have certainly pushed my evolution to new heights. Through it all, I’ve been fortunate to be able to help people manage complex problems. I’m immensely grateful for that. Whatever this pandemic brings in the weeks ahead, I’m all in.

The more uncertain life gets, the harder I work. The more I see opportunities to help to society, the more I will double down.

I see enough people determined to do their part, whether they work in tech or as food-delivery drivers, medics or bankers, to know that society will get through this. We may even emerge on the other side better than we were. (I always try to be optimistic. I see no reason to stop now.)

No doubt there are many who aren’t as lucky and can’t lean on their work right now. My heart aches for everyone who lost their jobs at hotels, movie houses, restaurants, airlines, hair salons and other businesses forced to shut down as people shelter in place.

The fact that my industry isn’t so drastically affected (so far) means I’m simply going to work even harder. I simply must.

Thanks to those who make it possible for me to keep working, and thanks to those who continue to teach me new things along the way.

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Physical Distancing Doesn’t Mean Social Distancing

Amid the pandemic, we hear a lot about social distancing, which produces images of people isolated and alone, cut off from the world. The sound of it alone can bring on bouts of depression. What’s really happening is anything but — if you’re willing to use the tools available.

Mood Music:

On the work side, we may all be at home, but through GoTo Meeting, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Facetime, my colleagues and I are getting a lot of time together. There are the meetings, of course, but a lot of us are also using these platforms to have lunch together and just banter:

Checking in with my colleague, Hillary Blair
Colleague Charlie Carey telling me, “Your humor is best when socially distanced.”

Some of my friends in the security industry have set up Zoom meetings and kept them running. Folks can come and go as they please.

My friend and former boss, Akamai CSO Andy Ellis, has used these tools for family dinners and spiritual gatherings. The following is posted with his permission:

In some respects, I think our extra efforts to socialize these days has been good for us. There’s a certain solidarity in all this.

I hope we don’t lose that when the pandemic ends.

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5 Examples of Humanity’s Best Amid COVID-19

The war footing we’re on with COVID-19 remains serious and will be for some time to come. We can’t let our guard down or return our lives to normal — whatever that was — for the time being.

But we can put the future into a better perspective. As harsh as life seems right now, there are myriad examples of humanity doing the right things and seeing measurable progress. Here are five of them.

Mood Music:

The First US Vaccine Test Has Happened

The first person in the US was injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine Monday, leading the American charge in a global hunt for protection.

Antibodies from Recovered Patients Could Protect People at Risk

With a vaccine for COVID-19 still a long way from being realized, a Johns Hopkins immunologist is working to revive a century-old blood-derived treatment for use in the United States in hopes of slowing the spread of the disease. The treatment could be set up at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore within weeks.

SK Reports More Recoveries Than Coronavirus for First Time

South Korea reported more recoveries from the coronavirus than new infections on Friday for the first time since its outbreak emerged in January. The downward trend in daily cases raises hopes that Asia’s biggest epidemic center outside China may be slowing.

Uber Eats Waives Delivery Fees for 100,000 Restaurants

One of many, many examples of private enterprise stepping in to help everyone stay afloat — with full bellies.

Booze Makers Are Using Their Talents to Make Free Hand Sanitizer

Distilleries across America are stepping up to mitigate the shortage of hand sanitizer by making their own and giving it away. Another example of the best humanity has to offer.

Hang in there, folks. The helpers are out in full force.

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Finding Meaning in a COVID-19 War Footing

Each morning, as part of my job, I scan the big daily papers for cybersecurity news so we can put them into a digest to help chief security officers (CISOs) communicate the important stuff to top executives. This includes reading DealBook, a business-oriented newsletter from The New York Times. Reading it this morning brought out something I didn’t expect.

Mood Music:

This morning’s digest led with “What a ‘Wartime’ Economy Looks Like,” a rundown of all the actions the government and private sector are taking to approach the COVID-19 pandemic like a war. Said Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard economist and former Chief Economist for the International Monetary Fund:

The whole point of having a sound government balance sheet is to be able to go all out in situations like this, which is tantamount to a war.

Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Public Policy and Economics, Harvard University

Reading this energized me.

My reaction seemed odd at first, since the write-up was anything but a call to arms. It was just an emotionless rundown of information.

But this morning I awoke feeling grim. Right before bed the night before I had made the colossal mistake of ignoring my own advice of limiting news and social media intake. Erin chided me about it and I got snippy. Once you get sucked into a mounting pile of doom on the internet, pulling away is like trying to rip out a nail that’s gone through your foot.

So I met the dawn feeling that things were as bad as they could get, or that they were certainly headed that way.

Then I saw the DealBook article.

It didn’t convert my gloom into sunshine, but it reminded me of the larger purpose and how, to use the very old but still applicable cliché, we’re all in this together. This is indeed war, and we all have an opportunity to save lives and turn the tide of battle, even against a virus that couldn’t care less about borders, culture, creed, skin color or economic standing.

Social distancing sucks after a while. The damage to the global economy is going to suck in a multitude of ways. But all is not lost. We have much to gain, even if we have no clue what that is yet.

Rock on, fellow soldiers.

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Joking About COVID-19

“Humor is the universal solvent against the abrasive elements of life.”

Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson

Several lifetimes ago, I was a newspaper reporter and editor. I saw a lot of tragedy and depravity in that line of work: fatal car wrecks, families burned out of homes, murder and, yes, health crises.

Mood Music:

https://youtu.be/QPNqojbyIDk

I used to walk over homeless people sleeping in the Lynn Police Department entrance, the place wreaking of piss. I’d sit in courthouses to report on arraignments, watching some of the unluckiest, choice-challenged people I’d ever seen in my life.

Along the way, my sense of humor took a dark turn.

I’d joke to other court reporters about whether someone standing in front of the judge was guilty of whatever they were charged with (“Of course they are!”). When listening to police-scanner chatter about fire trucks being sent to a triple-decker fire in Lawrence, some of us would place bets on how quickly they’d put out the flames. Lawrence burned so often that the firefighters learned to do their jobs with ninja-like precision.

My colleagues and I felt a lot of sadness and heartache along the way. Our hatred of human suffering was always just below the surface. But joking about some of it is how we survived.

This gallows humor is something a lot of police officers, medical professionals, security practitioners and military veterans have shared with me over the years based on their own experiences, most of them a lot more harrowing than anything I’ve experienced.

No matter how dangerous and tragic something is, sometimes laughter is the only armor you have.

I mention this because there’s been some backlash over memes and commentary making light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Some say it’s cruel to laugh about such a grave threat, that we have to take it seriously. Some who joke about it are called dismissive.

And some of those people are dismissive. I shake my head more over people who seriously downplay what’s happening, writing it off as a media conspiracy to undermine Trump.

But those memes joking about toilet-paper hoarding? That Onion article about wearing two face masks (one on the back of the head in case Coronavirus attacks from behind)? Those are keeping me sane.

If the humor bothers you, I’m sorry. I certainly don’t want to see you hurting.

But don’t expect everyone to walk around their quarantine holes with a dour stare 24 hours a day.

To the jokesters: Keep it coming. You’re helping me through this, and I appreciate you.

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CDC Says Hunker Down for 8 Weeks, and the Economy Is in Chaos. We Can Do This.

COVID-19 molecule up close and text COVID-19 Updated

Like most people, some COVID-19 news items scare the crap out of me. Two examples from yesterday: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks, and the Federal Reserve, seeking to steady financial markets, cutting interest rates to near zero. 

The latter rattled me because the news will only spread more fear among investors. It signals that the Feds see recession. Global stocks took a hit from the news overnight, making another bad day on Wall Street likely. The CDC news rattled me even more. “How the hell are we going to hunker down like this for 8 weeks?” I thought.

Mood Music:

After a few hours of sleep and some more reading, I’m calmer. Hopefully, this post calms you, too.

Let’s start with the economy: There’s little doubt that we’re in a downturn. But there are myriad signs that we’ll adapt and even make innovations that will benefit economic growth in the long run.

NYC-based financial advisor Joshua M. Brown writes that we’re in for more scary headlines, but that like the alarming words we saw amid 9-11 and the 2008 financial meltdown, we will adapt and move forward. He notes:

Without a doubt, the news will get worse from here. But its ability to shock us will diminish.

Last night, after the governor of my state announced a ban of even midsized gatherings and sitting in restaurants and bars, there were signs of hope. I saw restaurants quickly adapting and making takeout options easier for people. I mentioned one such example yesterday: the Canlis Restaurant in Seattle shutting its dining room but switching gears to food delivery.

Schools are closing en mass, but instead of doing nothing, most are adopting online classroom options. I’m seeing this up close with both my kids at home.

Some areas of the economy are going to suffer more than others, obviously. Restaurant servers, Uber drivers, hotel workers and airline/cruise ship employees are in for a lot of pain. Those of us with the financial means to help should be thinking about what to do.

In many other parts of the economy, however, I see companies quickly shifting their models in ways that will keep them humming along. Microsoft and Google moved their employees to a work-at-home model earlier on. My own company has done the same, and we’ve been able to shift several of our in-person events to virtual without much of a sweat.

In the coming days, weeks and months, we’re all going to learn a lot about what my profession calls business continuity. The lessons will enable us to weather future crises with more ease.

In the meantime, how do we all keep from going mad as we isolate ourselves? Here’s my plan:

Daily walks and drives. We can still go outside as long as we keep our distance from others. I’ll be taking plenty of walks and a few drives to break up the day.

Being the change wherever I can. I’m fortunate to be in the cybersecurity business, which is heavily focused on business continuity and risk management. I’ll be tripling down on producing content to help our clients through this. I’ll also use my social media platforms to share common-sense guidance and shoot down fearmongering, dismissiveness and falsities as much as possible.

Music. I’ll be doing a lot of soul soothing by losing myself in some of my favorite music.

Movies. Our house will need breaks from reality, and we have Netflix, Britbox and Amazon Prime at the ready.

Healthy eating. I’m fortunate in that I dropped 70 pounds before this crisis and adopted healthier eating and exercise habits. As a result, I’m already finding it easier to weather current events. I have more energy and mental bandwidth to do so. These habits will continue.

We can do this. We will do this. Peace and strength be with you all.

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Researching COVID-19 When You Have Depression, Anxiety and OCD

One of my biggest OCD habits has always been a tendency to over-research things. In 2005-06, when some “experts” predicted an H5N1 bird flu pandemic that would kill as many or more people as Spanish Flu in 1918-19, I googled “bird flu” multiple times a day and would go five pages deep per search. You can find some terrifying shit in a search like that.

That period and the one we’re now living through has brought three things into focus for me:

  1. No matter how experienced the scientist or medical professional, predictions are a roll of the dice. One expert you see on the news a lot lately is Michael Osterholm. He’s painting a bleak picture now and painted an even bleaker one during that bird flu cycle. Things didn’t turn out as he predicted.
  2. Deep Googling will drive you mad. I love data. My profession requires that I sift through and make sense of a lot of it. But when you dive deep out of fear, looking for numbers and analysis that suggest everything will be fine, you will almost always be disappointed because of reason 1.
  3. Getting news from social media will drive you even madder. Every article you find comes with all manner of opinions and predictions from your friends and family, most of whom have no medical expertise. They might know someone who is, and they think that magically makes them an expert.

As I’ve learned to manage my own depression, anxiety and OCD, I’ve refined my armchair research habits. These are not cure-alls by any means, but these are what I’m doing.

Avoiding the Google search barrel roll

Instead of typing in “COVID-19” in the news search and scrolling several pages of results, I’ve limited my search to finding specific data points that paint the current picture without the emotion of news commentary. 

Using dashboards FTW

I bookmarked the best examples early on and now I just check those sites once or twice a day. I get a lot more information and have to do much less scrolling, and I get a calmer picture every time. The dashboards that are particularly helpful include the World-O-Meter Coronavirus page I mentioned in the last post and this excellent piece of work from a high school student.

Staying current with the CDC

The Centers for Disease Control website has a good FAQ section on COVID-19 — actionable guidance that focuses on what you can do in the here and now and not what might happen a week or a month from now.

Filtering social media

I could tell you to stay away from Facebook, Twitter, and the like, but that would make me a hypocrite. I’m on Facebook all the time. Yet I have learned to look at shared articles with more scrutiny. If it’s an article from Vice, Rolling Stone or Mother Jones, I’m less inclined to click the links; often their titles are laced with scaremongering and political bias from the left or right. If it’s from NPR or the BBC, I’m more inclined to go in and read or listen.

I’ve also gotten a good sense of who among my Facebook friends will react to news with cooler heads and who filter the news through political bias, overreact and or be too dismissive. I’m starting to conclude that it’s pointless to engage the latter camp in a reasoned discussion. Splitting hairs over whether COVID-19 is more deadly than the flu is worse than useless and you won’t change minds. The same when it comes to whether the Trump Administration has done a good or poor job managing the crisis. You won’t change emotionally charged, politically charged opinions. My mental health has been better since I decided to stop trying to do so. (I do go in and poke a little fun at these friends from time to time. Humor helps when the recipient takes it in the right spirit. Most do.)

Reading the big papers

In the past, I’ve been skeptical of the political biases within the big daily papers (the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Washington Post). But I must say that when it comes to COVID-19 reporting, all have done valuable service and are worth visiting once or twice a day.

The New York Times in particular has done a good job keeping the news simple and visual. Yes, I love these visuals. The Wall Street Journal has done a good job as well, especially with its special insert on managing the business fallout. Both have kept live updates concise as well. Even CNN has done that part well.

Parting thoughts

In this crisis, I’m heartened by a lot of the good things I see. I’ve been on two grocery runs this week where the stores were packed and shelves were empty. But I haven’t seen the fistfights and shouting matches others have reported. I’ve come across a lot of friendly folks who understand the absurdity of it all and are being friendly and helpful to each other.

I’m seeing a lot of businesses adapting almost seamlessly to all the closings and quarantines. The Canlis Restaurant in Seattle shut its dining room but switched gears to food delivery. My own company now has employees working from home until further notice, and we’ve switched a lot of our events from in-person to virtual with little hassle.

We are adapting. We are being good to each other. And that leaves me with hope that we may yet get through this in better shape than where we started.

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I Had Nothing Left to Say. Then Came COVID-19.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been here, deciding there was nothing left to say about life with OCD, depression and anxiety. I learned to live with it, accepted that ups and downs would be part of the journey (they have been) and saw others stepping up to share their challenges in powerful fashion.

So I departed, leaving the blog online for those who might get use from it. My work here was done.

The unprecedented anxiety and fear over COVID-19 has compelled me to return for two reasons:

  1. Rationality is in short supply. People either crudely dismiss the dangers of a virus the world has never seen before or they go into full freak-out, predicting another Great Depression and millions upon millions of deaths. Those of us in the middle need to speak up.
  2. I’ve haven’t curled up into a ball. I should be doing my part to be there for those who aren’t handling this as well.

I’m very concerned about the pandemic. Not about the virus itself, which so far appears mild for most who catch it, but about the economic chaos that comes with it — with everything getting cancelled, the stock market doing barrel rolls and the prospect of a health-care system overrun with panicked or seriously ill people.

But I don’t see an apocalypse. The economy, battered as it may be, isn’t fundamentally broken as it was during the financial meltdown of 2008, when credit froze and companies went under en mass. This is a forced slowdown as people make what I see as the right decisions, cancelling sporting events, business travel, conferences and everything in between.

The storm will pass, in large part because in our hour of danger, good people step up and help their family, friends and neighbors. We’re seeing plenty of that already.

That is, however, cold comfort to those who suffer from depression, anxiety and other instances of mental adversity.

If you thrive on activity and, for example, travel the world on business, the cancellation of well-laid plans will surely be a depressing thing. I’ve had to scrub two business trips planned for the next two months, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t phase me. A friend has had to cancel a lot more than I have and admitted that a wave of depression was one result.

With so much of life on hold and COVID-19 being pretty much all you see on the news, people with anxiety are undoubtedly suffering through bouts of mental whiplash. The space inside their skulls is filled with the sound of sirens and the sight of red strobe lights whirling away. In the past I’ve described this anxiety as level red, one of five colors in the anxiety rainbow.

I’m relieved to say that my own anxiety level, which would certainly have been at red a few years ago, is much lower right now. I’d say it’s at yellow: The concern and worry are there, but I don’t feel overwhelmed by them. I’m still able to live my life and do my work. For me, that’s progress. It also makes me feel a bigger sense of responsibility to help calm the waters, and I’ll do that in upcoming posts.

I’ve also seen glimpses of light cutting through the fog.

While the negative, emotion-laden media coverage is certainly loud, I’m finding plenty of common sense guidance. Some examples:

  • Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are successfully managing COVID-19 without some of the draconian measures China took. It shows a potential path the rest of the world could take.
  • There are some great data visualizations available to put things in perspective. One of my favorites, the World-O-Meter Coronavirus page, because it presents data points clearly, calmly, and without the freak-out factor.
  • A lot of people are finding humor in all this. I’m sharing a lot of memes on my Facebook page because I’m a firm believer that humor is one of our most powerful weapons against the darkness. A couple of favorites:

Two final thoughts:

A lot of kids are scared right now, and some parents will find it hard to explain what’s going on. In times like this I always think of what Mister Rogers once said: Tell them to watch for the helpers. They always show up.

For those wondering what they can do right now: Just be the blessing in someone else’s life. You don’t have to do something big to make a difference. Help those around you where they need help. Help them smile. Help them find the good news in a sea of bad news.

Until next time, be well.

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Robert C. Corthell, 1948-2017: Trucker, Teacher, Family Man

Robert C. Corthell of Haverhill, Mass., died peacefully at Lahey Burlington Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017, surrounded by loved ones, after suffering a pulmonary embolism. He was 69. He fought his brief illness with the same stubbornness and grit by which he lived.

His family and friends knew him as Bob, Bobby, Dad and Grandpa.

He was born and raised in Haverhill and, after serving in the U.S. Army, spent the rest of his life there, though in more recent years he and Sharon spent their winters in Winterhaven, Florida.

He made his living as a truck driver, hauling tractor trailers, commuter and school buses and just about anything else with four wheels and a motor. He was proud of his profession, keeping model cars and trucks around his desk at home. He retired from Conway Freight in 2014.

His nephew, Chris, remembers coming back from Germany in 1981 and riding with him while he drove a commuter bus to Boston.

He was a family man first, always there to help bail someone out if they were stuck on the side of the road or facing other crises. He and Sharon took in family and others in times of need. He was a devoted member of All Saints Parish in Haverhill and sent his daughters to St. Joseph School, then part of the parish. There, he served as a Sunday school teacher and Eucharistic minister.

Above all, he was a teacher.

On the side, Bob and Sharon ran Chandler’s Auto School and, as his niece, Faith, remembers, taught virtually half of Haverhill to drive.

After his brother-in-law, Leon Basiliere, suffered a stroke, Bob taught him how to drive again and helped him get his license back.

He taught just about all of his kids, nieces and nephews to drive and had started teaching his grandson, Sean. At Conway, he taught fellow employees about truck-driving safety. After retirement, he continued to teach driving and safety at the New England Tractor Trailer Training School (NETTTS) in North Andover, Mass.

He taught his son-in-law, Bill, how to drive with a stick shift in a beaten-up Ford Escort up one of the steepest hills in town. Bill was nervous as hell, and thinks his father-in-law enjoyed that.

He was passionate about RV camping and the safe and proper use of firearms. He and Sharon took their camper out regularly, and they lived in one during their Florida winters. Those passions rubbed off on his children and grandchildren, and each summer they would all camp together.

He taught his daughter, Erin, and son-in-law, Bill, how to haul a camper, set it up, close it down and maintain it. He also taught most of his children, his oldest grandson and various friends how to shoot with a firearm.

He and Sharon were avid square dancers and were members of the Firesiders, Montachusett Twirlers and Wolf Rockers square dancing clubs.

He had opinions and wasn’t afraid to share them, especially when it came to politics.

He taught countless people how to live and love. For that, we’re forever grateful.

He is survived by Sharon, his cherished wife of 48 years, his children, Erin Brenner and her husband, Bill; Robin Coughlin and her husband, Tim; Sara Croft; and Amanda Daniels and her husband, Matt, all of Haverhill. He also leaves behind his grandchildren, Sean, Duncan, Madison and Owen, many nieces and nephews, and his siblings: Cindi Basiliere, Janet Gillis, Natalie Pineau and her husband, Steve; Steve Corthell and his wife, Pat; and Fred Corthell and his wife, Terry. Bob was preceded in death by his sister, Nancy.

CALLING HOURS will be Sunday from 2-5 p.m. at Driscoll Funeral Home, 309 S Main St, Haverhill, MA 01835. A funeral Mass will be held Monday, 10 a.m. at All Saints Parish, 120 Bellevue Ave, Haverhill, MA 01832, followed by burial at St. Joseph Cemetery, 892 Hilldale Ave, Haverhill, MA 01832.

In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in memory of  (name of tributee) to support the greatest needs in patient care. Please send your gift to: Philanthropy Office, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, 41 Mall Road, Burlington, MA 01805. You also may donate at Giving.LaheyHealth.org/Donate.

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