WALTER, JR.

MEMORIAL DAY

As we all remember our loved ones this Memorial Day Weekend I would like to pay tribute to someone my wife and I never met. He was her Father’s brother…Walter Lundgren, Jr. An uncle that died long before my wife was born. The year was 1928. It was just after Christmas when as an eight year he wandered down to Buchanan Bridge Pond in Lynn to play with a friend. A ball they were throwing to one another rolled onto the ice. His friend pleaded with him not to retrieve the ball. Walter felt the ice was thick enough to hold his weight and it was after all only forty feet from shore. When he reached the ball he crashed through the ice. His friend cried for help. The police arrived and with a grappling hook retrieved the lifeless body. They raced him to the hospital but it was too late. Walter was no more.

This all came to light this week when my wife was curious about an Uncle she had heard about and the tragedy that ended his life. It all started when her brother sent the only known picture of Walter to her. When she saw the picture it tugged at her heartstrings and she had to know more about his drowning. This past Friday with the help of our son she spent the afternoon at the Lynn Public Library to search the Microfiche records of Dec. 1928. She visited Walter’s grave and placed a Memorial Tribute befitting a child of eight.

A life unfulfilled. The hopes and ambitions that we take for granted never to be realized. A life lost at eight…a tragedy indeed. He was buried New Year’s Eve 1929 at the beginning of a new decade…the 1930’s. We remember Walter Jr. this Memorial Weekend along with all our lost love ones. Walter may you rest in peace.