By Victor Tine
Staff writer
—
NEWBURY — The ancient Greek poet Homer tells us that it took Odysseus 10 years to return home after the Trojan Wars.
Jean Doyle's own Greek Odyssey didn't take quite that long, but it seemed at times to be endless.
Doyle, a retired Newburyport High School history teacher, returned to her Newbury home June 23 after a nearly 12-week medical ordeal that began with what was supposed to be a fun, 80th birthday cruise in the Greek Islands.
Doyle's homecoming was all the more propitious because it came just a few weeks before the release of her new book, "Life in Newburyport: 1950-1985."
The 552-page volume is a sequel to her "Life in Newburyport: 1900-1950," which came out in 2007.
Doyle originally started her books because the most comprehensive history of Newburyport, by John J. Currier, ends with the year 1905 and no one had chronicled the events of the 20th century in the Clipper City.
"I didn't write it to make money," Doyle said. "I wrote it because nothing had been written about the 20th century."
Doyle's first volume brought the city to the brink of the Korean War. The new book includes topics such as Newburyport's responses to that war and to Vietnam, but also more intensely local matters such as the rise of Yankee Homecoming, the city's monumental and history-making urban renewal program, and the last hurrah of Andrew "Bossy" Gillis, the city's bad boy mayor.
There are also personal profiles of people such as George Cashman, who brought Yankee Homecoming to Newburyport, and reminiscences of the days when Newburyport was a tough little waterfront town that had seen better days.
"There are stories about people you wouldn't know if you hadn't grown up here," said Doyle's daughter, Marcia Foley. "There are also stories about people who are still alive and whose accomplishments should be celebrated."
The cover of "Life in Newburyport: 1950-1985" is a panoramic full-color photo of Market Square as it appears today. The photo is by Jon-William Brown, who provided it at no charge.
By early April, Doyle had finished the research and writing and sent her manuscript to her publishing house, which would compile an index.
With the heavy lifting out of the way, Doyle and Foley embarked on a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, where they boarded a small cruise ship for a leisurely sail around the Greek Islands.
All was going well until, on the sixth day, the ship docked at Santorini in the Aegean Sea.
Around 2 a.m., Doyle got up to get a glass of water and as she reached across her bed, the ship lurched. She fell between her bed and her daughter's, landing on the floor of the cabin in instant and excruciating pain.
"I knew it was bad, bad," Doyle told a visitor recently after a physical therapy session at Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital in Haverhill, her last stop before heading home.
Unable to get any crew members to respond, Foley and a fellow passenger tried to make Doyle comfortable until a doctor arrived from Santorini the following day at noon.
The doctor advised the captain to sail to the island of Naxos, where there was a hospital.
X-rays at the hospital showed a fractured scapula and Doyle was also diagnosed with damage to her spinal cord. Doctors in Naxos recommended she be transferred to Athens, 6 1/2 hours away by ferry. After a couple of days in an Athens hospital, where she was fitted with a large plastic collar, Doyle and Foley were determined to get home.
Foley booked them a flight to the U.S. with a connection in Paris, but before they could leave, the volcanic eruption in Iceland caused the cancellation of all Paris flights.
Instead, they managed to get on a non-stop flight from Athens to Kennedy Airport in New York. They flew in the more expensive Business Class because Doyle was still in severe pain.
"I couldn't have gone Economy (Class), I was in such unimaginable pain," she said. "I could have died right then and there and I wouldn't have cared."
Five days after her fall, Doyle was back in the U.S., but she and Foley still needed to get from JFK to Newburyport, a drive of several hours. Foley's sister Jane and sister-in-law Melissa met them at the airport and drove them to Anna Jaques Hospital where Dr. Glen Crawford was waiting (even though they arrived at midnight).
Crawford almost immediately transferred Doyle to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
After five days in the Boston hospital, Doyle was sent to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital to gain strength with physical therapy in anticipation of surgery, which, fortunately, she wouldn't need.
She was able to go home for only a few days before she landed back in the hospital — the Lahey Clinic this time — with an irregular heartbeat. After she was stabilized, she was transferred to Whittier Rehab.
Finally back in her own home, Doyle is eagerly awaiting the first copies of "Life in Newburyport: 1950-1985," which should become available by July 15.
The book may be ordered directly from Doyle at www.lifeinnewburyport.com.
The book was originally intended to cover the entire second half of the 20th century, but Doyle said there was so much material to include that she had to cut back the time frame.
So, there are still 15 years of the century that are unchronicled. Does that mean there will be a third volume of "Life in Newburyport"?
"If there is, I'm not writing it," Doyle said.
"Life in Newburyport: 1950-1985" should become available by July 15. The book may be ordered directly from author Jean Doyle at www.lifeinnewburyport.com.
