When Cam Hartwell’s obituary ran in the Daily News of Newburyport, we all looked at the picture for the longest time. In the picture he was smiling and holding a golf club.
The line for the wake at Twomey, LeBlanc & Conte, the funeral home, stretched a full block down High Street. The service, at Immaculate Conception, was standing room only. We didn’t go; we didn’t know Cam, or his parents. Cam and his brothers hadn’t been through the public school system, and they were older. But Gina’s ex-sister-in-law, Veronica, had once been in a book club with Cam’s mom and she told Gina it was the saddest funeral she had ever been to. Ever. And that Alexa was inconsolable.