I was sad to learn that Ethel Callahan, a Lifelong Lowellian passed away Sunday at the age of 104. Ethel graduated from Lowell High School in 1926. Ethel was proud that she worked as a Service Analyst with New England Telephone (now known as Verizon) in Boston, MA for over 42 years.

My family was very fortunate that we met Ethel about 8 years ago when my son had a paper route and Ethel was his customer. My wife who delivered the papers with him got to be friendly with Ethel and my daughter now 12 enjoyed visiting.

I had the pleasure of meeting her and then visiting her at her home and later at the D’Youville Senior Care Center were she went to rehab a shoulder injury and enjoyed the facility and staff so much she chose to stay.

Up until the past 8-9 months Ethel was in good health and I would love to hear her talk about the City, Parish and Neighborhood dating back almost 100 years and what a great memory she had.

Ethel was a loving lady who cared for her friends and was also involved in many things. Active in her community, Ethel was a member and past president of the League of Catholic Women, a member of the Merrimack Valley Catholic Charities where she was a board member for 10 years and a member of the Telephone Pioneers of America. She was also a longstanding volunteer at Saints Medical Center in Lowell for over 35 years until her retirement when she was 99 years old.

A lifelong communicant, she was the oldest parishioner of St. Michael Church in Lowell

Our family will miss her and feel badly we didn’t get to spend more time with this special lady.

Condolences and a big THANK YOU to her very special friends who took care of Ethel Jan & Bill Hylan and Delores & Bill Green all of Lowell and Liz & Brendon Tarmey of Dracut.