Peter Lavin was born in Creevagh, County Sligo, Ireland on April 14, 1931. He was the seventh child of the late John Lavin and Bridget Harte. Along with his three brothers and seven sisters, Peter participated in all the work entailed in a self-sufficient farm. He planted and harvested crops. He went to the bog and cut turf to heat their century-old home. He learned early to milk cows and take milk to the creamery. But it was the animals on the farm that left the biggest impression on him, especially the one work horse. Peter said that the horse was so smart that “he could almost talk to you.”
Once, when Peter was a teenager, he was in a penned area housing a goose that had just produced several goslings. He got between the mother goose and her young so she went into attack mode. Peter saw her lower her head and come at him fiercely with her beak ready to cut into him. Even at that early age Peter showed his mastery of finding an efficient and quick solution to a problem. He reached down to untie one shoe and take out its lace. He managed to tie it around the goose’s beak so she could not open it. Peter quietly left the area…until his mother arrived on the scene in a dither because her money-producing mother goose was all riled up.
Another time when Peter was a young adult, he went to a neighboring parish for its annual dance and arrived home quite late. The house was in darkness but Peter could hear a cow looing in pain in the barn. She was ready to birth her calf but was having difficulty. Peter changed his clothes, headed to the barn, helped deliver the calf, and then put it in the pen with the other calves. Late in the morning his mother came rushing into his room shouting to get up quickly and help. “The mother cow has birthed and we can’t find the calf.” Peter simply asked her if she had looked in with the other calves.
In talking about his life in Creevagh, Peter once explained who had influenced him the most. “I guess I would have to say Red Pat and his wife. This was a neighboring man and his wife. They had no family. They had a small little thatched house. The house no longer exists. It was a typical thatched cottage back in the thirties and forties. Today if you go through the gate in our garden and don’t even look at the shed in front of you, the ruin is four or five steps down to the right.
“Red Pat was one of the greatest story tellers of all times. In the wintertime of year, the nights were long. He would sit by the turf fire and draw diagrams in the ashes to back up some of his stories. He had a great knowledge of Africa and different parts of the world. He mentioned the Boer War and other wars we never heard about. All we could do was listen to the stories. As I grew older, I discovered that some of the stories were very farfetched, but that is what makes an Irish story teller. He had a story one time about a man that came by riding a white horse in the sky. For a long time afterwards we spent time looking at the sky to see if we could find that white horse. Then Red Pat comes along and says if we look at the moon at night you could see the cow in the moon.
“Red Pat often told us to ‘sit down upon the ground and let your feet hang down’.” Peter tried that saying on his children when they were young, but it got lost in translation.
In his early twenties, it was obvious that there was no work to be had in Ireland. Like his sister Greta, and brothers Harry and John, he had to leave. The Irish government had totally failed Peter when it came to education. Peter often said that his teacher for the few years he was in school was simply a “babysitter.” This denial of a good education bothered him for the rest of his life. But, Peter was a very quick study. By the time he left Creevagh for good, he had learned both carpentry and had helped install the “new” electricity in many neighboring homes. His best story from that time was about a local farmer who was terrified about the new electricity. He missed how the lights went on so when it came time to turn them out, he sent for help. Another farmer. who had the electricity for a good while, arrived to help. Ever the prankster, this “helper” convinced the scared farmer to climb up on a kitchen chair and blow at the single light bulb in the same way you would blow out a candle. When the farmer did this, the “helper” shut the switch off behind the farmer’s back but told him that he had the new electricity down pat. Obviously, Peter Lavin learned well from Red Pat for Peter was a marvelous story teller.
With great courage Peter left Creevagh for the first time and traveled east to Dublin. From there he continued to Scotland where his brother John was living and working. Peter arrived at the beginning of a bank holiday weekend so John said they should take the train to London. Their brother Harry was living and working there; employment possibilities were better. Harry wanted Peter to take some time off and acclimate himself, but Peter was itching to get started. Though he had never stepped foot in a pub, Peter found a job as a barman in a small London pub. The staff lived in rooms above it. Within a few years Peter had worked his way up the chain until he was working at the elegant Lyon’s Corner House. Peter saved his money carefully. One of his proudest achievements was when he sponsored himself to immigrate to the United States. The time from Peter’s first request to the American embassy through the medical clearance took all of two weeks! He had his permission and flew to the United States in August 1957. Over the years Peter talked lovingly about how much his Aunt Dote had done for him when he lived in London.
When Peter arrived in New York City, his Uncle Mike and Aunt Della Harte helped him to get settled. They had moved from the Bronx to Wappinger Falls, NY, a quiet area. One weekend when Peter was visiting, they asked him to drive to the local bar to pick up a pizza that had been ordered. Peter asked what a pizza was but was told that he would find out soon enough. Peter found the bar and the pizza. He paid for it, turned it on its side, put it under his arm, and headed out the door. Needless to say the little trick was turned back at his relatives, and all had a grand laugh when the box was opened.
As in London, Peter found employment as a waiter and worked his way up the restaurant chain of hierarchy to The Forum of the Twelve Caesars and the Rainbow Room in Manhattan. To his dying day, Peter was upset when waiters and waitresses failed to do their jobs properly. Peter probably would have stayed with this business, but Uncle Sam intervened. The IRS began to tax tips. Peter saw instantly that he would lose money so moved onto his real love, carpentry.
Peter was a proud member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Local 608 whose jurisdiction was lower Manhattan. The union provided a guaranteed hourly wage along with health and retirement benefits. Peter was such an incredibly gifted carpenter who was so organized that it did not take long for high-end construction companies to hire him to run their more important jobs. Peter traveled to Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Chicago, Atlantic City, Clearwater (where he fell in love with Florida), and Palm Beach. His favorite contractor, by far, was Gerber Construction. While Peter was in their employ, Macy’s at Herald Square was declared a landmark property. Macy’s wanted to renovate part of the first floor and the mezzanine. Peter’s eye for detail and his knowledge of drawings made him realize that the engineers were going to have a problem if they went ahead with their next task. He called the engineers and explained the problem. They did not listen to him; he was “only” a carpenter. The task was performed and the entire mezzanine dropped several inches.
In June 1972, Peter was asked to be an usher at the wedding of one of his carpenter friends, Richard Geelan. His fiancée, May McKeough, asked her cousin, Cathy Lavin, to be a bridesmaid. On the day of the wedding Peter and Cathy walked down the aisle together. It was a morning wedding, followed by an afternoon reception, and then a party at the groom’s brother’s home. By the end of the evening the guests were calling the brand-new couple “the love birds.” They were right. On April 28, 1973 Peter and Cathy walked down an aisle together, only this time they were husband and wife.
While still working in the construction industry, Peter moved his family from Fresh Meadows NY to Bridgewater NJ to open a new business. In January 1980, P. C. Lavin Hallmark opened at 12 West Main Street, Somerville, near the courthouse. Within a few months, it became obvious that the store had a formaldehyde problem cause by the Hallmark fixtures. Between September 1981 and December 1982, Hallmark replaced all those fixtures four times. P. C. Lavin made Hallmark history but it did not solve the problem. P. C. Lavin had to move.
Fortunately a commercial property came up for sale at 57 West Main Street. It was a Victorian beauty with retail space on the first floor, one apartment on the second and two on the third, but it had been neglected for years. It did not take Peter long to begin renovating the building. He reconfigured the first-floor space by shrinking the office and relocating the heating unit, all on the weekend and one day off. When P. C. Lavin relocated there, the space worked well and benefitted from private parking in the back along with a back entrance. In the eighteen years Peter was the landlord, he never stopped improving. The second floor became two modern apartments while those on the third floor were also modernized. He designed and built (single handedly) an exterior fire escape for a third-floor apartment that did not have a second exit.
During all those years, Peter’s first priority was his family. Whenever he worked in Manhattan, he came to the shop and closed up so Cathy could devote her time to their son Kieran (born in 1976) and daughter Maura (1978). On weekends he was on the soccer fields cheering for Kieran’s team. But Maura was his little girl. She could paint his fingernails, twirl his hair, and charm the life out of him. Each night he would come home and tell her “a little birdie told him to ask her how her day was.” When Kieran and Maura became students in Immaculata High School and joined the marching band, Peter was a proud “band parent.” He never missed a performance and relished working with other fathers to load equipment onto the band truck. When he learned that the school did not have a nice place to display the many band trophies, he set to work. He measured the space, designed a unit, paid for the necessary supplies…and then built the entire unit in the garage of his Bridgewater home. It took ten men to load the huge piece onto a truck. The unit can still be seen in the lobby of Immaculata. If you look carefully, you will see the plaque honoring Peter Lavin.
When his son Kieran became an architectural student at New Jersey Institute of Technology, he came home shortly after enrolling with an intimidating assignment. Peter listened to what Kieran needed to do, set up a big work table on the deck in the backyard, and set to work guiding Kieran with his project. And when Maura was graduating from high school, she earned the annual scholarship presented by his beloved Union 608. At the awards ceremony in New York City, Peter was bursting with pride. Although Peter did not have the background to help her with her college engineering studies, he supported her in ways that also counted: unconditional love and encouragement.
Eventually it became time for Peter and Cathy to retire. Because Peter grew up among the lakes of Sligo and within eyesight of Lough Skeane, Peter had a lifelong love of a relaxing water view. It was with great delight that Peter and Cathy purchased a three-bedroom condo in Ocean City, MD. For eleven years they enjoyed the eastern balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and the western balcony overlooking Assawoman Bay, both with panoramic views from the fifteenth floor. Many a glass of white zinfandel were sipped as he, Cathy, and visitors took in the ever-changing views of the setting sun over the bay. Peter marked the passage of the sun as it traveled through the months from the northern part of the bay to its southern boundary. And, on a star-studded night, he could be found on that balcony using the high-powered telescope that his brother-in-law had given him to study the stars and planets above us.
During his retirement years, Peter and Cathy had homes in Middletown, DE, as well as in Bradenton, FL. Yet it was the move to Port St. Lucie in 2012 that worked best for him. He was now living near his “little girl” who had changed his life forever when Maura gave birth to Peter’s only grandchild, Makenzie. Peter and Makenzie had a very special relationship, and he was fortunate to have her living so nearby. Maura and Makenzie kept a good eye on Peter while Kieran was always available to take time away from work in NYC to “be there” for his parents. Peter’s favorite question for Kieran was, “Are you still building NYC?”
In his final years as he struggled with dementia, something he never accepted, he was surrounded with love from his family, friends, neighbors, and parish community. He accepted all help that was offered to him with simple words: “thank you.” It did not matter if you were opening a door for him, driving him, or treating his medical needs, Peter approached everything with an attitude of gratitude.
A funeral Mass for Peter will be offered on Friday, October 3, 2014, at St. Bernadette Catholic Church at 10 A.M. This will be followed by a celebration of his life. If you would like to remember Peter in a special way, contributions can be made “in memory of Peter Lavin” to the Alzheimer’s Association Southeast Florida Chapter, 11711 SE US Highway 1, Hobe Sound, FL 33455. Or you can make a donation online at his wife Cathy’s personal page with the Alzheimer’s Association:
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