Color photo by Tim Jean
B&W by Mark Lorenz
StoryBy Judy Wakefield
Out for a walk with his dog on Saturday, John Mclver heard what he thought was the sound of kids playing. He followed the young voices and soon saw what he called "every parent's nightmare."
Two boys - one his neighbor - had slipped through the ice and were stuck in the frigid Shawsheen River.
Reacting quickly, Mclver was able to pluck Max Nolin,12, and his cousin, John Randall, 13, from the river, averting the type of tragedy that shocked Lawrence last year.
Since then, it has been a week of gift-giving to Mclver, who happens to live across the street from the Nolins on Arundel Street.
"My parents have sent him all kinds of stuff, like wine and stuff," said Max, a West Middle School seventh-grader. "As for me and John, we'll be doing all his yard work this summer."
It was last Saturday afternoon, Feb. 21, when Max and John went for a walk that almost turned tragic. The boys were walking the Nolin family dog, an 85-pound yellow Labrador retriever who just turned 4 this week, along the banks of the Shawsheen River. The trio was walking behind the Washington Park housing development when the dog, Abby, slipped through her decorative collar and ran onto the ice. Max went after the dog, and both of them fell through the thin ice. When John reached out his arm to pull his cousin to safety, he also fell in.
"We were very, very scared and I couldn't think at the time" Max said, adding he was especially worried about his dog. "She was biting me to hold me up." The boys were over their heads and wading in the deep and very cold water for at least five minutes, but it seemed "a lot longer," Max said.
Then they heard a dog, saw a man and started screaming. It was Max's neighbor and friend, Mclver, who was walking his Labrador. Mclver said he heard the boys and thought that was unusual because the area is remote. He followed the young voices and soon saw them in the water. "I recognized it was panic and they were screaming for help," said the father of three, who is married to Mary Ellen (Wesson) Mclver. "I can't remember thinking anything but how to get them out and what was the easiest way to do it."
He pulled off his coat and used the coat to pull both boys to safety. Then, he attempted to retrieve Abby, but fell through the ice himself. "I thought the water would be waist-deep, but it was up to my shoulders and I couldn't get out,"he said. "And, it was really cold."
Deputy Fire Chief James J. Dolan said last year's Merrimack River ice tragedy, where four boys died after falling through thin ice, was on everyone's minds after a Washington Park resident reported the trouble. John ran to the complex, yelling for help after Mclver rescued him. His cousin stayed with Mclver and kept a tight hold on his dog. Catherine Nolin also said the Lawrence tragedy was on her mind as she unexpectedly came upon the rescue scene. She was wondering why the boys were taking so long and decided to look for them around the Shawsheen field when she saw several cruisers. "Somebody said they were getting a boat to rescue some boys and I just knew," she said. "It was a scary 10 minutes until I heard everyone was OK."
After the rescue, both boys took hot showers and then sat down for a refresher course on ice safety. "They learned a good lesson. You can never tell where the edge of the water is. You can't get too close," she said of the boys, who are best friends. John, an eighth-grader who also
attends West Middle, is the son of her sister Debbie Randall of Bumham Road. As for Abby, the family now makes her wear a choke collar for all walks, as that is much less likely to slip off. Abby was unfazed with all the media attention as newspapers and television stations descended on the Shawsheen neighborhood last Sunday once news of the rescue
got out. She is back to her curious ways, digging her way out of the backyard and running across the street to help Wessie escape from her confines. "They've got a reputation in the neighborhood," Mrs. Nolin softly chuckled. "We call them Thelma and Louise."