Friday, February 13, 2009
TPL at 6:22 AM
NEWS:
In 1968, a white firefighter saved a black baby girl, touching the heart of a divided city. The two did not meet again. Until yesterday (February 11, 2009).
The firefighter crawled on his stomach through the pitch-black apartment, the smoke so thick he couldn't see his hand in front of his face. Somewhere inside was a baby and he had to find her.
A window broke, light filled the room, and he saw her lying in her crib, dressed only in a diaper, unconscious. Soot covered her tiny nose. She wasn't breathing and had no pulse.
He grabbed her and breathed life into her as he ran from the apartment.
A newspaper photograph captured their image - a white firefighter from South Boston with his lips pressed to the mouth of a black baby from the Roxbury public housing development - at a time when riots sparked by racial tensions were burning down American cities.
But despite this most intimate of introductions, they remained strangers. William Carroll won a commendation for the rescue, stayed on the job another 34 years, and retired.
Evangeline Harper grew up, lost her family to drugs and illness, had six children of her own, and became a nursing and teaching assistant. And through it all someone would often tell her the story about the day she almost died and the man who would not let it happen. She always wanted to meet him and say thank you.
Yesterday, more than 40 years after the fire, she finally did.
In the neighborhood where they first met, Carroll, a slim 71-year-old, got out of his car, dressed in a navy blue uniform he had borrowed from a
fellow firefighter, strode up to the 40-year-old woman, and beamed.
"You've grown a lot since the last time I saw you," he said, laughing and putting out his hand. She smiled, gently took his hand, and looked at him almost shyly.
"Thank you so much for remembering me," he told her.
Then he pulled her into a tight embrace and they held on to each other as they stood on Keegan Street, just a few yards from where he had carried her limp body decades ago.
"Thank you so much," she said softly.
The Globe arranged the meeting after Evangeline Harper, now Evangeline Anderson, introduced herself to a reporter at a community meeting and asked for help tracking down Carroll.
Anderson, who now lives in Dorchester, had tried twice before to locate the firefighter, first when she was 18, after her adoptive mother told her about the rescue, and again right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
She tried to get his address from the Fire Department, but they said they could not give out personal information. She left her name and phone number, but never heard back.
"I thought, 'Oh, forget it. He probably doesn't remember," she said. " 'He's not interested.
That could not have been further from the truth.
"Evangeline Harper," Carroll said. "I'll never forget her name if I live to be 100 years old."
He heard once that she had been trying to get in touch with him, but somehow her phone number was lost and he did not know how to reach her.
For a while, Anderson stopped looking. Then, she heard the news about Lieutenant Kevin M. Kelley, the firefighter who was killed in January after his firetruck crashed into a Mission Hill building.
" 'Oh my God, this could have been this gentleman, and I never got a chance to say thank you,' " she recalled thinking. "I didn't want him to leave this earth or I to leave this earth without saying thank you."
Yesterday, she brought her youngest child, 6-year-old Reginald, and her godmother, Jacqueline Greer, who witnessed the rescue. For the meeting, Anderson swept her hair in a curly updo and carefully applied lip gloss.
The women brought Carroll a giant stuffed bear, and a thank-you card tucked inside an envelope addressed "To Our Hero."
Richard Paris, vice president of the firefighters union, stood nearby with Carroll's wife and little Reginald, who kicked at the frozen snow on the sidewalk as Greer, Carroll, and Anderson reminisced about the neighborhood.
Gone were the brick high-rises that had once formed Orchard Park. In their place were two-level attached apartments painted in pastels and browns.
"I haven't been here in so long," Carroll said.
No one could remember exactly what started the fire on Nov. 7, 1968, but Greer said it began in the family's kitchen. Carroll, who was assigned to Engine 3, heard the report of children trapped in a burning building.
When Carroll arrived, Greer was at the scene, screaming and crying hysterically.
Carroll saved Evangeline, while Firefighter Charles Connolly rescued her 17-month-old brother, Gerry, and handed him to Lieutenant Joseph O'Donnell, who gave the boy mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
"He just cared," Greer, now 60, said of Carroll. "It wasn't that the child was black or she was white. It was a child and he was trying his best to bring her back her life."
Yesterday, both remembered who was missing from the reunion. Connolly and O'Donnell died long ago of heart problems. Anderson's brother Gerry succumbed to pneumonia as a toddler. Her grief-stricken mother turned to drugs for comfort, and died of an overdose at age 25. Her two sisters died young of natural causes. Last year, Anderson lost both her adoptive mother and uncle.
"I wish my friends . . . were here," Carroll said. "But they're up there watching over us."
"That's what I say about my family," Anderson said.
The two quickly built a rapport. He asked about her children, and she told him her eldest son was studying forensic science in college and how musical her other children are.
He told her he wanted to get to know her, and she promised to cook him some soul food.
"Oh, baby," he said, laughing. "I love it, but my stomach don't."
Carroll then took the group for lunch at Florian Hall, the union's headquarters, where Carroll still goes every week for coffee with friends or to help fellow retirees with healthcare questions. Over sandwiches, the group looked at old black-and-white photos of that day and traded stories about the challenges of raising children.
Carroll bonded with Anderson's son, who drew a picture of himself holding Carroll's hand.
Parting in the parking lot, Carroll hugged Greer and Anderson and told Reginald to call him.
"There's your new grandpa," Anderson said to her son.
"What a beautiful day," the retired firefighter said as he turned and walked back inside.
Now, what a beautiful tale... gratitude that can last 40 years...do you think you can remember someone that did something good for you for that long?
Labels: 40 years of gratitude, thanks
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
TPL at 8:28 PM
Unless you are living in a hole, you would have heard of this fantastic series before.
From Wikipedia, Avatar: The Last Airbender (also known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang),[1] is an Emmy award-winning American animated television series that aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon and the Nicktoons Network. The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who served as executive producers along with Aaron Ehasz. Avatar is set in an Asian-influenced world[2] of martial arts and elemental manipulation. The show drew on elements from East Asian, South Asian, and Western culture, making it a mixture of what were previously traditionally separate categories of anime and US domestic cartoons.
The series follows the adventures of the main protagonist Aang and his friends, who must save the world by defeating the Fire Lord and ending the destructive war with the Fire Nation.[3][4] The pilot episode first aired on February 21, 2005[5] and the series concluded with a widely-lauded two-hour television movie on July 19, 2008.[6] The show is now available on DVD, the iTunes Store, and the Xbox Live Marketplace, as well as its home on Nickelodeon.[7]
Avatar: The Last Airbender was popular with both audiences and critics,[8] garnering 5.6 million viewers on its best-rated showing and receiving high ratings in the Nicktoons lineup, even outside its 6–11-year-old demographic.[4][9] Avatar has been nominated for and won awards from the Annual Annie Awards, the Genesis Awards and the primetime Emmy awards, among others. The first series' success prompted Nickelodeon to order second[10] and third[11] seasons. A movie trilogy tentatively titled The Last Airbender is expected to start production in March 2009.
The animation is crisp and nice, with no fancy fancy stuff. The story is refreshing and the jokes never gets old. What's more, its like Pokemon for everyone and we love pokemon. The protagonist also has a bankai like power too. Sweet!
Labels: Avatar, the last airbender
Monday, February 2, 2009
TPL at 6:33 AM
Just watched the movie Underworld 3: Rise of the lycans.
In case you don't happen to be familiar with the series, this movie is the prequel to Underworld 1 and Underworld Evolution or aka Underworld 2.
The movie was quite ok. Nothing quite out of the box although the action was fast and furious. Prepare to see alot of men being shot with huge ass arrows and the main actor turning into lycan a few times.
The drama is lacking except for a few moments of romances scenes.
The one person that stands out the most though, is this particular person...
Hes the lord of the vampires.
He practically moved the movie's plot on his own for some time in the movie. If you are seeing this movie,you will be convinced by his acting.
Labels: Underworld 3: Rise of the lycans
