Thanksgiving

In 1968, Bill Carroll was a firefighter in Boston and was part of the response team when there was a call about a fire in the Roxbury public housing development. He learned that children were trapped inside. Carroll found an infant girl, Evangeline Harper, in her crib and resuscitated her as he carried her out from the apartment. A reporter captured images of Carroll giving the child mouth-to-mouth, which were carried by newspapers around the world. Not only was it an act of heroism, but in the setting of significant racial tensions at the time, the images carried special poignance.

Evangeline Harper had been told about her rescue when she was a teenager. She tried to find Carroll once she turned 18, and then again after September 11, 2001, but she was unsuccessful. When she recently heard on the news about a different firefighter killed in the line of duty in January, she renewed her efforts because she did not want to miss another opportunity to thank Carroll before it was to late. This time around, she enlisted the help of a Boston Globe reporter and was able to find the man who had once saved her. They were both so happy to be able to reunite.

Boston Globe story