Coincidents

In 1960 I had just been registered in a Phys-Ed program at Western University and was attending the summer program.I had made friends with some of the students in the program and one in particular became a long time friend. Fred Plato was his name and he played all the games I did and as he lived in Niagara Falls he was closer to home than I was. I was living in Fort William at the time. After registration and a week into the course Fred invited me to go home for a day to visit his family.He lived down town near the falls and next to the fire hall.I was anxious to meet his family and see around the city as I only saw the falls once before.

We had assignments at university so we decided to go home on Friday and return early Sunday morning. As we drove from London on Friday evening Fred was pointing out the places of interest and decided to drive down past the falls on the way home. We were listening to the radio and a bulletin was blasted over top of the news saying a young boy had been seen going over the falls but he had a life jacket on.

Fred gave his old Hudson car a little gas and as we pulled up to the wall surrounding the falls another bulletin said that the boy had been sighted and pulled from the water by the crew of Maid Of The Mist. He was alive and well and the life jacket he wore stayed on and kept him safe. I told that story many times in years past but as I read the Toronto Star Newspaper the other morning, there were the pictures of the young man then and now.It was fifty years ago and I wondered how half a century could go by so quickly. He was with his sister today as he was that fateful day when he beat all the odds and survived the fall of a lifetime.

I was going to call Fred as a reminder but realized that he had passed away. Coincidences occur in our lifetimes but our timing that day at the Falls was one I shall never forget.