THE BOY WHO LIVED: Caleb Potter was supposed to be dead by now. He was not supposed to be marching again in the annual Wellfleet (MA) Fourth of July Parade, one year later.
On July 4, 2007, Caleb marched as he always did with his pirate crew of friends, again, of course, as Yellowbeard. That afternoon, the 25-year-old Owen Wilson look-a-like did something really stupid: riding on his skateboard, he grabbed onto the back of his friend's pickup truck and faceplanted. Hard.
The doctors gave him a seven percent chance of surviving. If he did survive, they said, he'd be in a vegetative state.
To say that this Outer Cape community immediately rallied around this uninsured, self-employed native shellfisherman is an understatement. Quite frankly, I've never seen anything like it. "Pray for Caleb" signs hung and pirate flags flying all over the place. You couldn't go into a restaurant, bar or store without there being a jar up front collecting money to help pay his medical costs. This pirate town of the Whydah kept him front and center of the town's consciousness all summer long with events like "paddle out" rally in the water, twice-daily prayer circles in front of Town Hall, and a ton of fundraisers.
I will confess that early on I had a fair amount of cynicism about the whole thing -- how much sympathy was I supposed to have for a good-looking kid who consciously chose to do a stupid, risky thing? It was a bit like the "Save Ferris" movement in a way, and you wondered if it was a phenomenon that just gained momentum because it felt good to be a part of something.
But it was real, and in this small community the desire it was palpable. You just couldn't help being overwhelmed by the coming-together of all these people around one of their own, touched by the way in which everyone, everyone built this support system for him and his family, in this town where everyone knew someone who was close to him and his family.
And somehow, Caleb kept recovering and worked his tail off in rehab, with his mom's blog charting every step of the way. He lost an eye, and his short-term memory may never be wholly back, and then his father committed suicide ... yes, it has been a rough, awful, terrible year for Caleb and his family.
But there he was today, back in the parade. They didn't make a spectacle of it -- he wasn't the Grand Marshal, they didn't even put him on a float or in one of the classic cars. He just walked as part of his pirate crew, with his friends, right after the pro-impeachment peace drummers and before the crew from the nearby seafood shack tossing candy. Yellowbeard and his crew were back, and on this Fourth of July, all was right in Wellfleet.
e.t.a. Pictures and video via Caleb's mom.
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