News

Peabody man was at home in his garage

By Paul Leighton
Staff writer
Published: March 17, 2008

Everyone's life has a story. In "Lives," we tell some of those stories about North Shore people who have died recently. "Lives" runs Mondays in The Salem News.

PEABODY — Some people spend their lives traveling the world. John McCarthy's world was 22 Swampscott Ave.

McCarthy, who died of lung cancer on March 9 at age 68, passed most of his retirement days in his garage, brewing coffee and chewing over the topic of the day with his friends and anyone else who stopped by his home near Peabody Square.

"He didn't like to get off Swampscott Avenue," said Nancy McCarthy, his wife of 46 years. "He was so proud he could own his own home because his mother and father never did."

John McCarthy grew up on Aborn Street in Peabody, less than a mile away. His father, William, worked in a leather factory, and his mother, Ruth, stayed home with their seven children.

Money was tight. On the rare occasions John needed to dress up, he had to wear his mother's shoes.

McCarthy never forgot those struggles. He refused to own a credit card, insisting you shouldn't buy what you can't pay for in cash. Whenever a bill arrived, he went to his desk, wrote out a check, sealed the envelope and walked straight to the mailbox.

"He was a simple man," his wife said. "He really didn't care about material things."

McCarthy worked as a machinist for 34 years and saved enough money to meet his goal of retiring at age 60. From then on, he spent most of his days inside his small garage, which he had lined with walls of pine.

McCarthy would head out there every day at about 8 a.m., put on a pot of coffee, and stay until 5 p.m. Five or six guys would stop by on a regular basis.

"We'd talk about sports, just everyday things," said his brother Eddie. "He was very mild-mannered, laid back."

"He was a sitter and a talker and a coffee drinker," Nancy McCarthy said.

The garage was open 365 days per year, with a space heater to warm things up in the winter. The bus driver on the way to the nearby Welch School would stop by. So would the truck driver for Dunkin' Donuts, which is just down the street. On Halloween night, McCarthy handed out candy from the garage.

His wife, who worked as a nurse, parked her car on one side of the garage (John didn't like to drive). But until yesterday, when a reporter asked for a look at the garage, she had never been on her husband's side, even though they've lived there since 1963.

"He would look through the window to see if I was in the kitchen," she said. "If I went by, I would wave to him."

The former Nancy Bozek grew up across the street from McCarthy. She invited him to her 14th birthday party, "and from there it was John and Nancy," she said. The couple raised two children.

McCarthy stopped smoking three years ago, but he was diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent 35 radiation treatments. Last September he went on a rare trip, a cruise to Bermuda.

But otherwise, he spent his days in the garage, next to the home he never thought he'd have and never wanted to leave.

"He loved his 22 Swampscott Ave.," Nancy McCarthy said.

Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or by e-mail at pleighton@salemnews.com.