Joyce Firth:  

One fortuitous night in 1990, I was invited by my( still ) BFF Gail Stevens (FNHS '71) to her 20th class reunion. Gail's husband was both happy and grateful to bow out and let me go as her date that night. Along with having a really great time and meeting up with a huge chunk of my old neighborhood, many church friends and our younger classmates, I met up with one of my high school, walking-home-from school buddies, Bruce Firth. Ten weeks later, we were married and beginning a 20 year honeymoon living a military life at the Coast Guard Air Station in New Jersey. In 2001 Bruce retired from our last duty station in Sitka Alaska and we moved "home" to Massachusetts after 30 yrs of active duty and many relocations. On a beautiful summer morning in Aug of '07, and without warning, Bruce suffered a ruptured cardiac aneurysm. The subsequent surgical complications left the love of my life brain damaged, paralyzed and the permanent resident of a nursing facility in Milford, MA. With one beat of his heart our lives changed forever- But our love and commitment to family have not. Together, Bruce and I have the world's most wonderful, loving and supportive family- A son and his family in Hopedale, MA., and daughter and her family in Arizona, and we are grandparents of 4 perfect and active little boys. Our mothers and siblings are all well and most live...Expand for more