Uncle Ned was 57 and had been 34 years a firefighter. The funeral was at St. William's Church in Dorchester and burial was in Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline. A couple of years ago, I became curious about whether Uncle Ned, having died as he did, was recorded on the honor roll of firefighters killed in the line of duty. However, an inquiry to the Fire Department revealed that he was not. The record said only that he went off duty in February 1937 with burns to his face, head, and hands.
Memory is a tricky faculty.
I did no more about the mystery at the time, but it continued to bother me. Recently, I looked into it again. The obituary also gave the date of death as May 17. Since Ned Jr. had said Uncle Ned had died a few days after the fire, I went to the microfilm in the Globe library to look through issues of the newspaper the week or 10 days before that date, hunting for a big waterfront fire. There was a lot of other news.