Voice from the Sidewalk

I passed the spot many times, and never noticed it. By chance, I looked down one day and there it was. Craved neatly into the cement at curb side was June 6, 1938 with two little feet imprints and the name Dolores McGarvey. After eighty-seven years it was still there undisturbed. I was immediately curious. Who was this woman behind this sidewalk memory? This was on a street in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey. A place where families come to vacation during this summer. So the first question was, did she live here year round or just for a week or so during the summer? The search was on.

I tried doing some of my own research on line looking for McGarveys of which there were several. My wife Maureen said you need to go the library and do some serious research. I went to the Cape May County Library. They have a whole research area on the second floor. The woman at the desk was immediately helpful. I explained that I was looking for a girl born in the mid thirties given the size of the footprints. She found a Mildred McGarvey through the 1940 census who lived on Woodland Avenue in Philadelphia at the time. She then help scan old newspapers from the 1930s to see if I could find anything. She then led me their computer and access to Ancestry.com.

I was able to find a Mildred McFadden who lived on Woodland Avenue married to Michael McGarvey. They had a daughter Dolores in November, 1933. She would have been four and half in July, 1938 when the imprint was made. Dolores married Stanley Noreika in the early 1950s. Dolores died on August 25, 1979. She and Stanley had a son Stanley in 1955. I found he lived in Florida for many years but also had a Perkasie, PA address. I found a couple of phone numbers on line. First one went to voice mail. The second one worked.

I asked if it was Stanley Noreika. He said yes and I asked if his mother was Dolores and he said yes. I explained who I was and what I was calling about. He was very calm and didn’t seem to think it was a bizarre phone call. I was amazed I was able to reach a family member within hours of starting my research. I explained I was a writer and I was curious about the little girl behind the sidewalk carving. He said his parents had four children. He was the oldest. Dolores had a difficult life. Stanley said the marriage started to go badly in the 1960s and his parents divorced. His father remarried in 1971. He said his mother was an alcoholic and she was adopted as a child by the McGarveys. After the divorce, Dolores married again briefly but it was annulled. Stanley told me she was later found unconscious in a hotel room in Atlantic City. She suffered some brain damage. She eventually went to rehab and ended up in a nursing home.

Her son seemed to have lost touch with her. He only visited her once in her later years, There was no sorrow in his voice just resignation to what happened years ago. He said she died in the mid-seventies. I told him it was 1979. He said that was about right. I thanked him and told him I appreciated his time and he thanked me for calling. Everyone should be remembered whether they lived a good life or a difficult one. I’m glad I looked down that day and could tell the story of the voice calling from the sidewalk.