A beautiful little boy, a life cut short by tragedy, a mother's tremendous anguish - all evoked by the soft shy appearance in this old photograph. Norbert was born in August of 1927, the third child of hardworking Polish immigrants, Walenty and Sophie Janus. The family lived near an industrial area in Grand Rapids, close to the Grand River, and the children attended St. Adalberts Catholic grade school. So devout were they, that the highlight of the children's lives was not birthdays but the celebration of their First Holy Communion at the beautiful basilica at St. Adalberts. (Norbert is shown below in a commemorative photo, dressed in fine clothes, neatly combed hair and shined shoes. The carefully orchestrated pose also displays the boy's rosary and his adorable hesitant smile.)
When Norbert was almost eleven years old, he was playing with some other children on the train tracks that flanked the neighborhood. While I am not sure of the particulars, it seems the boys were jumping among the couplers of an idled train; somehow Norbert lost his footing and took a dreadful fall. Unconscious, he was carried home and then to a hospital, where he died from a severe brain injury just a couple of days later. The grief and pain that his parents suffered remains unimaginable.
Pictured at left are two of Norbert's three siblings - Chester (my father) and Dorothy, two and four years older respectively. Littlest sister, Theresa, who was born in 1933, is not pictured.
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