Teen's remarkable 1951 water rescue of toddler leads to lifeguarding bursary
In 1951, at 15 years old, Bob Wardle pulled Frankie Bates, 2, out of a cistern and performed CPR
Bob Wardle can still remember every detail of Aug. 10, 1951 the day his teenage self jumped into a cold, dark cistern near Brooks, Alta., and saved a little girl who was as "blue as a pair of brand new blue jeans" when she was pulled out.
Frankie Bates died of cancer last summer, but because of Wardle, she got an extra 65 years out of life.
This is a story about a remarkable rescuebased ona series of fortunate events andas Wardle, now 82, puts it: "It's all by chance, it happened by chance." But it led to him receiving an inaugural award for the most gallant rescue in the Commonwealth.
The first piece of that chance was a local businessman who paid for Wardle's lifeguard training a year before he saved Bates. And now an annualbursary bearing both their names will give two southern Alberta teens the same opportunity he had.
"It will do nothing but save lives," saidWardle.
Summer of '51
When he was a young teenager, Wardle, whose family lived inTilley, Alta., badly wanted to become a lifeguard but cancer had left his father paralyzed and money was tight for the family.
One of his father's friends a local business man quietly paid forWardle'straining, meals and room and board in nearbyLethbridge.
In the summer of 1951, Wardle, then 15, got a job at the Brooks pool.
The pool in the1950swas not what you might imagine today. It was dug out of the dirt with irrigation ditches at each end.
After six days, Wardle says about a foot of mud would accumulate and the pool would be shut down so a crew could clean it out. Those would become Wardle's days off.
'Absolute chaos'
One of his days off fell on Aug. 10, 1951, andWardletravelled home toTilleyto visit his parents and friends. He and a buddy were in a garage checking out a car when they heard screaming coming from the neighbours' home.
The boys rantowardthe noise and discovered a two-year-old girl had fallen in the cistern at her grandparents' home. She'd been down there for 10 minutes, they estimated.
"It was absolute chaos women screaming and crying and men yelling and running around," saidWardle. "There wasn't anybody there that could swim, there wasn't anybody there that knew about artificial respiration, there was just mass confusion."
Wardle began to tell the frantic adults what to do.
Toddler unresponsive, blue
They had tried to shove a wooden ladder into the small opening but it had jammed partway down.
Wardleordered them to take it out. Then he had the men hold his wrists and lower him into the 16-inch opening.
"There was no light. It was black. The water was very cold," he said.
The cistern had just been filled with water and Frankie was at the bottom.Wardledove to the bottom once, twice, and on what he'd decided would be his final attempt, he made it to the bottom, swiping around with his hand until he felt the girl's hair.
He hauled her to the top, where a small pocket of air allowed him to shout for the men to pull them both out, one at a time.
Little Frankie was "blue as a pair of brand new blue jeans," saysWardle. Overwhelmed, hekneltbeside her.
"That's when I think the real miracle happened," saidWardle. "All of a sudden, all sound seemed to disappear and I heard my lifeguard instructor telling me what to do.I heard his voice and he told me step by step what to do."
For 10 to 20 minutes, Wardleperformed CPR with Frankie's grandfathera man he deeply respected as the local postmasterscreaming, convinced she had died. Eventuallyhe heard a gasping sound. And then another. Frankie was breathing again.
"We were all just stunned," saysWardle, tearing up as he recalls Frankie's family's emotions that day.
The soft-spokenWardlewon't take much credit for the rescue.
"It wasn't that I was brave, it was just that I had the training," he says.
But the Royal Life Saving Society did feelWardlewas a hero and selected him to win its first ever Mountbatten Medal "for the most gallant rescue or rescue attempt undertaken throughout theCommonwealth."
In July 1951, at the Calgary Stampede, visiting British Second World War hero LordLovatawardedWardlehis medal.
Over the years Bates and Wardlewove in and out of each others' lives. He attended her wedding. She would drop in on him and his wife.
"Frankie seemed to know when we needed a visit," saidWardle.
In another twist, theWardlesended up on the sameCochranestreet as Frankie's son Michael Bates and his family.
Now, Michael's children see theWardlesas surrogate grandparents. When Michael's daughter Ellie had to do a school project on a great Canadian, she choseWardle.
"Bob's joke is then my daughter took him and my mom to school for show and tell, so that was kind of neat," said Michael.
Once he reached his80s,Wardleasked Frankie to speak at his eventual funeral, never imagining it would instead be him speaking at hers last June.
He was thrilled when, after Frankie's death, herfamily told him they had created an award to fund lifeguard training in both hers and Wardle's names.
"It will do nothing but save lives," said Wardle. "I am deeply honoured and pleased that they're doing this because this is going to save other people."
'She'd be really proud'
Every year, two students one in each of the rescuee's and rescuer'shometowns of InnisfailandCochrane will receive $750to pay for lifeguard training from theCalgary Foundation Frankie Bates Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Last Thursday, Grade 12 student Joseph Cline, who works at theJaymanBuiltAquaticCentre inCochrane,was awarded the BatesWardlebursary.
On Friday,ZikeMaree, aGrade 12 Student atInnisfailHigh School and Junior Lifeguard at theInnisfailAquatic Centre, will be presented with her award.
Michael Bates says his mother, who dedicated much of her life to volunteering in her community, would love this part of her legacy.
"That other kids will get a hand up that maybe don't have the money and will be able to be trained to save somebody;I just think that it hits all the right boxes of all the things she would do if she were still here."
"I like to think that she'd be really proud."
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