Last week, with fanfare and fireworks, a tall spruce tree from Nova Scotia lit up the Boston Common and welcomed the holiday season. For over 50 years, Nova Scotia has sent a tree as a gift of appreciation for what the people of Boston and the state of Massachusetts did in their time of greatest need.
On the cold morning of Dec. 6, 1917, in the midst of World War I, two ships collided in the narrow straits of Halifax Harbour. The French SS Mont-Blanc, loaded with ammunition and explosives, ignited from impact with the Norwegian SS Imo. This caused the largest manmade explosion prior to the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. That force, and the fires and tsunami that followed, completely pulverized entire communities within a half-mile radius. Five hundred children and 1,500 adults were killed, most instantly.
Hearing of the disaster over the wires, Boston quickly stocked a train with relief supplies and a volunteer corps of 79 nurses and 39 doctors for the 700-mile journey. To make matters worse, the trip was slowed by a three-day blizzard that required many stops to shovel snowdrifts off the tracks.
Upon arrival, the team immediately set up a temporary medical hospital to care for the 9,000 injured. Many had severe burns from overturned stoves. Others lost limbs and eyes from piercing shards of glass and debris. To save the eyesight of many, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital sent a team of eye specialists and their nurses for what would be Canada’s greatest eye injury disaster.
The explosion also destroyed hospitals, schools and resources. Nearly one-half of the population of Halifax, about 25,000 people, was left homeless or without adequate shelter. The flying slivers of glass that penetrated storage sacks also made food supplies unsafe for eating.
Restoring Halifax would be a long process. Over the next seven years, Boston and the state of Massachusetts continued to help our neighbor to the north not only with medical needs but also with their lives and homes.
The people of Halifax have not forgotten these acts of kindness. Each year, they send their gratitude for one neighbor helping another in the form of a beautiful Christmas tree, the first to light up the Boston Common.
May every brightly lit tree you see during the holiday season be a reminder that unselfish acts of kindness are the true meaning of Christmas.
Dr. Barbara Poremba lives in Salem and is Professor Emeritus of Nursing at Salem State University.