Cafarella
Helen Lillian Cafarella
(1916 - 1942)

Age 26. 44 High Street, Waltham, MA. Born in September 1916, in Brockton, MA. Died of carbon monoxide poisoning (death certificate). Housewife (death certificate). Known by her first name Helen, also by her middle name Lillian (or "Lil"). In a mixed foursome with her husband Felix, age 28, also her married older sister Mrs. Josephine Powell, and the latter's husband John, ages 29 and 34 respectively, of Cambridge, MA, all died. Group had attended the afternoon Holy Cross Crusaders' 55-to-12 football rout over 28-point-favoite Boston College at Fenway Park. Was at the club to celebrate the 29th birthday (same day) of her older sister above. Graduate of Brockton High School in 1936. Married June 1941, in Brockton. Co-owned Jo's Beauty Shoppe, Brockton, with the same sister prior to her marriage. With her husband and companion pair were two of 56 married couples present in which both spouses perished. With her sister was one of seven female sibling sets lost in the blaze (also Misses Hannah and Winifred O'Dea, ages 28 age 24, Misses Rose and Sally Summer, ages 35 and 33, Misses Louise and Irma Wilding, ages 22 and 19, all single; plus Mrs. Sadie Levin and Mrs. Adelaide "Addie" Wasserman, ages 38 and 32, Mrs. Ethel Slate and Mrs. Jeanette "Jennie" Zall, ages 48 and 35, and Mrs. Mildred Whitmarsh and Mrs. Margaret Lewis, ages 28 and 24, the latter six married). The above beauty parlor (address 103 Main Street, Brockton) was by chance located directly across from McCarthy's, Inc. (102-104 Main Street, Brockton), a department store owned by a victim in a separate party, Edward McCarthy, age 47, of Brockton (assets of the latter mercantile were being liquidated in mid-December). Parents Mr. and Mrs. August and Marikona "Catherine" (Yunicka) Bratulevicz, of Brockton. Burial with her husband at Calvary Cemetery, Waltham. "The funeral of Mrs. Caferella [sic] was planned to be held...in Brockton but the families decided that the couple will be buried together" (The Boston Evening Globe, 12/02/1942).

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