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'Outpouring of kindness' has kept Jalbert family going

By TOM DALTON

Staff writer

SWAMPSCOTT -- "I'm a history teacher," said Mike Jalbert. "I remember where I was for the Challenger (explosion), and I remember where I was when Reagan was shot. This is going to be one of those days, unfortunately."

Most Americans will remember for he rest of their lives where they were on Sept. 11, but few will recall the day with the depth of emotion that Jalbert will.

On that morning, his father, 61-year-old Robert Jalbert of Swampscott, was a passenger on United Airlines Flight 175, one of the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center.

"I was at school and had a free period beginning at 9 o'clock," Jalbert, a Swampscott resident and Wakefield teacher, said during a recent interview at his kitchen table.

"I happened to be in the area of the main office, and the principal came out and said, 'A plane just flew into the World Trade Center. Go around to the rooms and tell the teachers not to tell their kids.'

"I was kind of in the process of doing that when I realized, 'Oh boy, my dad's on a plane today.'"

Robert Jalbert, a sales engineer for Rogers Foam Corp. of Somerville, had departed that morning from Logan Airport on a business trip to Los Angeles.

After calling his mother, Mike Jalbert found out the airline and flight number. A call to United Airlines, made possibly an hour or more after the crash, provided some temporary and false hope.

"They told me they still showed the flight as in progress," he said. "It was obviously a management decision which I have a real big problem with."

Jalbert returned to his class and resumed teaching. A short time later, the principal came to his room with a message to head home. On the drive home, Jalbert knew his worst fears were true.

"When I went home in the car, I could hear (my father) talking to me -- that's when I knew."

The Jalbert family made it through this past year because of the love and strength that Robert Jalbert, a devoted husband and father, and his wife, Catherine, gave to their three children -- Mike, 35; Suzanne, 33; and Julie, 30.

But, like other victims' families, the Jalberts have had hard times, especially during the holidays, when they were flooded with memories of a father who loved, above all, family gatherings.

"Thanksgiving was hard because it was the first holiday," said Mike Jalbert. "Christmas was hard because it was his holiday. He loved sitting back and watching the grandkids."

Then came July 4. That's when the whole Jalbert family traditionally goes to the beach -- except for Dad.

"He might have gone to the beach five times in the 20 years we lived here," Jalbert said.

When the family was at the beach, Robert Jalbert stayed at their hilltop home to prepare a barbecue and pour glasses of red wine. It was always ready when the crowd returned. Of all his passions, which included playing semi-pro hockey and his Catholic faith, red wine ranked high on the list.

"We came back from the beach this year and there was nothing to eat and nothing had been done," said Mike Jalbert. "He wasn't there this year, and it hit us like a brick. That was an awakening."

Catherine Jalbert has continued to work as a human resources executive at a local hospital. She also has remained active at St. John the Evangelist Church, where her husband had been a daily communicant.

The Jalbert children have persevered because of all the gifts their father gave them, including his sense of faith and family, and because of all the arms that have reached out, and continue to reach out, to them.

"We talk about this so often," Mike Jalbert said. "We have received such an outpouring of kindness from so many people, from friends and just people in town. This community we are all a part of has been so fantastic. We never could have survived without that and without each other."

On this Sept. 11, two days after what would have been their father's 62nd birthday, the Jalberts plan to do what their father loved best. It is to be, in a way, their gift to him.

"I see us being together all day," Mike Jalbert said. "And I see us having a glass of red wine for him."