Grumman Even Sent Out Helicopters to Help with the Search

We can only hope that they find him before the tide takes him out to sea. This was hard on my family: not having his body, not knowing where he was. They just had to wait and see if he would be washed up on the shore or never be seen again. The next few weeks, people stopped by with food, and just spent time with mom. The only thing they could figure was when his boots and his clothes filled with water, Earl’s heart just couldn’t withstand the strain. You cannot change history, but it was just the next year they had medicine that would have helped his enlarged heart.

My cousin Mal thought to himself, “I don’t want anyone going to the beach and finding a body on the shore.” So every change of the tide, he went to Wades Beach. Just past where he went under, he would drive his boat to the point of Mashomack every day. For he knew if Earl went past this point, he would be lost forever. This went on for four weeks, every morning and evening, after the big search for him had ended; it was almost a month that he had been missing. Mal thought to himself, “I think this is my last week because the water was getting warmer and there was no sign of him.” He was not a religious man, but he told me later he asked God to help him find Earl. He was on the last turn of the beach, and as he went around the turn, he said, “Please, Earl, be there on the shore.” As he went the final distance, he looked up, and there was something on the shore just at the last turn of the shoreline. He rushed to see if it was him.

The tide was getting ready to change, and he didn’t want the tide to take him out into the water again. He pulled his boat right next to where my dad was on the beach at the water’s edge. He reached him in time. He grabbed a hold of his overalls and pulled him out of the water past the high tide line. Then he said out loud, “Thank you, God, for not taking him out to sea!” Then he had to go back to get help, so he jumped back in his boat as fast as he could to get to his truck. He drove right to the police station. The officer on duty saw his face and the officer said, “You found him, didn’t you?” Still out of breath, he said, “Yes, he is on the point at the end of Mashomack.” After Mal told the officer, he left the police station and headed back to where he left Earl on the beach.

With that being said, the officer picked up the phone and dialed the operator to blow the fire whistle, and told them assistance was needed at the end of Mashomack at the water’s edge, which is all he said. So the whistle blew six long and three short; this told the men to go toward the south part of the island. The operator also would call the firehouse to let them know where they were going. But before they called, the police officer went over to the firehouse, which is right across from the police headquarters. He wrote on the chalkboard, “Earl has been found, on point of Mashomack.” We did not have cell phones or pagers like they have today. But when the radio operator at the firehouse got the call from the operator, saying, “They need assistance at the point of Mashomack,” the fire department already knew. They saw what was on the chalkboard already, and the trucks were pulling out of the firehouse.

After the police officer put the information on the corkboard, he went out to the point where Mal and Earl were on the beach. The road is a dirt road and is three miles long that goes to the manor house. After that, they had to drive across the yard to reach the beach. Just a bit down the beach was the point of Mashomack. When the officer gor to the point, they waited for the help that was on its way. They did not have to wait very long; he could hear the sirens on the trucks getting closer and closer. My mom heard the whistle; she counted the long and short of the whistle and knew it was in the area of where my mom’s house was for the house is alongside Mashomack property. She waited, and then she heard the sirens coming her way. She went out on the front porch to see if she would see them. But all the sirens she could hear were on the main road, which is 114. But then she heard one coming down her street; she looked while the truck was slowing down. The driver slowed down enough to see it was Hap and he called to my mom, “He has been found. We are going to get him.” She knew what he was saying. She called out “thank you,” and then he was gone. So we found out later that Hap knew that Dot was on pins and needles every time the whistle blew, so he took a small detour hoping to see her.

Then again, all the wives of the firemen came to be with my mom. My brother and sister were in school, and I was staying up the lane at my grandparents’ house. It had been a month almost to the day since the accident; my dad was in the water. The men on the island said when the water got warmer; he should come to shore if he did not reach the open water. It was really close. They said if there was one more tide change, he would have been gone forever. So all the prayers asking God to help find him were answered, and as word got around, they said it was as if the island was singing. All the churches started ringing their bells. They rang, some people tell me, almost a half hour. So I was told it was a peaceful feeling to hear the bells ringing. There are three churches on the island, and they are located on three different parts of the island. A lady told me one day she was coming off the ferry, and she heard the Catholic Church bells. Then as she got into the center of the island, she heard the Presbyterian Church bells, and as she was going down the road a bit, she heard the Episcopal Church bells. She said it was so amazing she knew why they were ringing, so she took the next turn and went to my house. She also told me when she was off the island she had ordered some food at her favorite restaurant and was bringing it to my mom. The way I look at it, God was looking out for my mom and my family in more than one way. So in putting this down, my heart is full of love and thanks to the Lord God for what he did for this special island and the people on it.