Publisher’s Note:  This story draws on publicly available records and historical accounts from newspapers and public documents. It tells the story of a local family who endured multiple tragic events. The story has received numerous messages from readers — some charged with emotion, but many recognizing the remarkable strength and resilience of the family. The Southwick Time Machine’s goal is to keep the memory of those who passed alive and tell their story , preserving the lives and experiences of the people connected to these events. The STM honors the memory of those who are no longer with us .      — A Southwick Time Machine Reader-Requested Tragedy     A Branch of the Bardsleys Alan Bardsley was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on December 22, 1915. By September 1937, he was working as a sheet metal worker when he and Miss Phyllis Ruth Morse—who lived just down the road from him—filed their marriage intentions. Their first child, Kenneth A. Bards...

  — A Southwick Time Machine Original | Tribute     Sylvester Lambert Meagher, Jr., married Marion Grace Chambers in a single-ring service at St. Mary’s Rectory in Westfield, Massachusetts, on November 28, 1929. For their honeymoon, they traveled to Washington, D.C. Upon their return on December 15, 1929, they made their home at 41 Pochassic Street before eventually moving to 9 and then later 42 Montgomery Street. Sylvester Jr. had to return as he was called to report for jury duty for the trial of cases of the Superior Court criminal sitting on Monday, December 23, 1929. That same year, Sylvester Jr. became manager of the grocery department at the First National Stores on Elm Street in Westfield. Marion was a telephone exchange operator. (First National Stores grew into a major New England supermarket chain. It eventually became Finast. The final Finast store closed in 1993.)   A First National Stores, Inc. grocery store (location unknown) as seen in 1928   In ...