Letter brings together both sides of border
Mayor of U.S. town visits Kingston for Canada 150 weekend, writes Arthur Milnes.
When I was growing up, it was clear to me that one word struck genuine terror in our mother’s soul. Polio. My late mother had worked as a young nurse in the 1950s at a children’s polio ward in Toronto. Whether her service was for a day, a week, a month or a year, I honestly don’t know.
But, the fear for her was very real.
She also admired the work of Paul Martin Sr., who, as Canada’s minister of health, helped bring the Salk vaccine to the world.
Mayor Bob Prater of Warm Springs, Ga., now 71, knows all too well the dangers of polio. As a child in Alabama, the disease struck him and then, just as mysteriously as it came, it left and he grew up a normal kid.
It was only eight years ago, when he was in his 60s, that the good muscles in his legs, which had been over-compensating for decades for the ones that had been damaged by polio, gave out. For the rest of his life, he will now wear the dreaded leg braces most of us — thankfully — have never seen.
Mayor Prater and his grandson, Drew, both came to Kingston for Confederation 150 weekend due to one of the time capsule letters my wife, Alison, and I sent. And they were the hit of the town, particularly when we all gathered to bury our time capsule.
First he read, with genuine emotion and pride, his tiny city’s official proclamation that had declared July 1 Franklin Roosevelt-Sir John A. MacdonaldCanada Day in Warm Springs. (Franklin Roosevelt himself, another man who didn’t let polio stop him, used to visit the place Prater leads today as mayor to “soak his polio-stricken legs in the warm waters,” as TV Ontario’s Steve Paikin describes.)
Then, because I could think of no higher honour private Canadian citizens could bestow on a foreigner, Mayor Prater was invited to lead our group’s reaffirmation of our Canadian citizenship July 1 in my backyard.
Kingston’s mayor was there, as was one of our area MPs, Scott Reid. There was also a transplanted American, Lynn, who now lives in Kingston, along with an American couple from Scottsdale, Ariz., in town for 150 as their community is a Sister City of Kingston’s.
And many people in front of Mayor Prater became openly emotional as he led us in Canada’s oath — on Confederation’s 150th birthday, in one of the Fathers of Confederation’s town.
The next day, and despite his leg braces, Prater wanted me to give them a quick tour of Kingston before they caught their flight.
In particular, they wanted to see where Franklin Roosevelt of their Warm Springs had spoken in 1938 when FDR famously visited Kingston.
Mayor Prater really liked that stop of my tour of Kingston. In fact, it was the final one. He and his council have now invited Kingston to be a Sister City. And they have officially asked Kingston’s mayor, Bryan Paterson, to be their grand marshal at this November’s Annual Candle Light Tour Parade.
I suspect both will now pass at Kingston city council. Paterson had better pack his bags.
And, a lot of Kingstonians will be seeing Mayor Prater and his grandson again.
All of this because of a snailmailed 150 time capsule letter.
Many people in front of Mayor Prater became openly emotional as he led us in Canada’s oath.