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Play, download and edit the free video Helen And Harold Little.

Harold and Helen Little were like grandparents to me growing up. My parents met them in June of 1978, shortly after they moved to their first home on Wilmot Street in Lawrence, Mass. My dad and Harold became fast friends.

Dad and Harold always were together working on some project. In fact, the day before I was born, on August 15, 1982, they were working on my dad’s car in the driveway and Harold had his dog King on his leash, I believe, as they worked on the car that day. Harold and Helen also took great pride in their 4 family house on our block. It was the biggest house in the neighborhood.

Dogs and other animals were always present in the Little family. Harold told me one time when his kids were young in the late 1960s/1970s, he got them a monkey. Helen had a cat named Freedom in the 1980s that was mostly a street cat. But mostly dogs were the center of attention. Harold and Helen had King and Princess in Lawrence, both were German Shepherds, and Tiffany a peekapoo who had serious eczema and was Helen’s favorite dog. I grew up with these dogs in the 1980s and early 1990s. When they moved to Fortuna Farm in Andover in 1992, they had Vicky and LuLu (two more German Shepherds), and a variety of other pets including cats such as Mee-yew and Mittens, a ferret named Beauty, and two goats named after their twin grandsons Brian and Paul.

As a child, Helen and Harold were like grandparents to me. I was raised practically by my mom’s parents as they watched me during the day when I wasn’t in school and after school when I attended the Rollins School. But my dads parents I saw much less of. We did have family Sunday dinners like every Italian family did back in the days, but those stopped in early 1989. After that, I found myself more around Harold and Helen’s family which was growing each passing year. Helen had 4 kids from a previous marriage, and she and Harold had 5 children together. These children were mostly in high school or finishing it by the time I was a toddler. As each of their 4 daughters married and started a family, the Little family began to grow and grow. Helen and Harold were blessed with three sets of twin grandchildren (3 of their daughters had one set each!) and a good number of other grandchildren that followed. Helen loved to shop and play bingo while Harold enjoyed relaxing, watching TV, and the occasional glass of liquor he'd have at times after working on projects with my Dad.

During a time when my dads family stopped going to Sunday dinners anymore, I didn’t see my aunts on my dads side for several years until spring of 1993. During these years, Helen and Harold knew we didn’t have anywhere to go for Christmas Eve, so they invited us to their parties in 1989 and 1990 (the last 2 years I believed in Santa Claus!)

Helen and Harold were two of the best peopleI knew. Helen had the best sense of humor and a memorable laugh. We weren’t family, but I thought of them as that. They always treated my dad like a son, my mom like a daughter, and me as a grandson. They were like Grampy and Butchie (But-Chee) to me, the names their grandchildren called them. I recall lots of good times with them. Harold babysat me one time and took me to get Candy at a shop on Lawrence Street, they both took my parents and I for ice cream at Findeisen’s for Tiffany the dogs birthday, and Helen loved to shop, and at times would get me little things here and there.

In 1991, Helen’s Aunt Helen Fortuna became a widow and stayed with them a short time. She decided to pass her property down to Helen at Fortuna Farm in Andover on River Road. I was sad that they were moving, but my dad said we’d visit.

In winter of 1992, during a snowstorm, I believe, I watched from the window, as their family rushed to move them to Andover. That Spring I finally visited the farm they lived on, and plans were underway for many improvements as the property was built in the 1920s and the land was full of old farm fencing. They had my dad do masonry and landscaping work on their hedges there as they had done in Lawrence, put in a big pool for everyone to enjoy in the summer months, and possibly the biggest thing that made me see them more over the years, they told my dad they were making a garden on top of the hill and wanted him to plant it as he loved making gardens. My dad planted his gardens there from 1992–1996 when I was 9-13 years old. Most weekdays between April and early October I was there with him, helping out in some way, playing with the grandchildren who’d visit, and swimming in the pool. Lots of good times were had on the farm. By mutual decision, and because of the pesky woodchuck and other animals eating the crops, the garden came to a stop in fall of 1996, as I began high school. I saw Helen and Harold at times after that, maybe once every few months. Even though life got in the way, my dad and I always made time to visit them. Harold passed away in November of 2011 and Helen passed in August of 2021.

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