A brief introduction:
My name is Paul Howley, owner
of the Eisner Award winning pop culture collector’s store known as “That’s
Entertainment” in Worcester, Massachusetts and a second store in Fitchburg,
Massachusetts. Some people have called me the “luckiest man in the comic book
business.” (I’m not) My stores have been around for over thirty years and it’s
been a long and interesting combination of events and people that have brought
these stores to this current place. It is not my intent to boast or brag about
my store or my life. I just want to tell you my story. In many instances, my
wife remembers things a little differently, but this is the truth as I remember
it.
The current cast of
characters:
Paul Howley: age 46
Mal Howley: age 47
Adam Howley: my son, age 21
Cassy Howley: my daughter,
age 17
MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE
HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP-Part 192
As the first Christmas
without Adam neared, we knew it was going to be hard for us all. My siblings
and my parents were all getting together for a “family Christmas” party and we
didn’t want to spoil it because we weren’t in the mood to celebrate. I made a
videotape message for them to play at the party explaining our emotions and I
know that they all understood what we were going through.
Cassandra still loved Christmas so we needed
to do something new for her. Mal and I decided that we’d try to change our
traditional Christmas celebration. We
felt that it would be too sad to celebrate in our home and we knew that we’d
still want to exchange gifts, so we booked a hotel room in nearby Concord, New
Hampshire. We were torn…we didn’t want to be alone, but we didn’t want to ruin
anyone else’s holiday. On Christmas Eve, we went shopping at a local mall. We
just walked around aimlessly just in case Cassy saw something that she’d like
to have. We planned to get up on Christmas morning, open our gifts and then
Cassy, Mal and I would go out to a movie together. Not much of a Christmas.
We got up on Christmas morning and opened
our few gifts. We sat around not saying very much to each other. It had been
nearly a year since Adam’s accident but this was the first “big” holiday
without him. It was going to be weird.
We heard a knock on our hotel room door. We
were shocked and pleasantly surprised to see several of our close friends! They
had come to visit us so we wouldn’t be alone. They sacrificed time with their
families to help us through this difficult day. We decided not to go to a
movie, opting instead to go out to lunch together. Cassandra insisted that she
wanted to be alone and we reluctantly agreed to let her stay in the hotel room.
As I began writing this part of my “story”
(about twelve years later) I wanted to mention our friends by name but when I
contacted them all to confirm that they were the friends that spent that
Christmas day with us, none of them even remembered being there. My memory is
foggy about that day. I’ve decided that it probably doesn’t really matter
exactly who was there with us. Whoever it was exhibited a kind of unselfish,
caring love that helped us immensely. Their sacrifice was a true example of
friendship that still affects me over a decade later.
Next chapter: We dread the first anniversary of Adam’s
accident.
