December 1946. The young family had moved to Lisbon Falls, Maine from Darien, Connecticut just a few months earlier. The Christmas presents were wrapped; the children (ages 7, 4 and 2 months) were snuggled in their beds. It was cold outside; snow covered the ground.

The four-year old girl was sleeping on one side of the second floor of the small wooden cape. Her seven-year-old brother was on the other side upstairs. The rest of the family slept downstairs. All of a sudden, the four-year-old woke up, smelling smoke, feeling scared. She put the blanket over her head and began calling for her dad. Her dad came in, wrapped her in a blanket and took her and her older brother outside and put them in the family car. Her mother brought the baby outside. It was 4 a.m., and the house was engulfed in flames.

The father dashed back into the house to get more blankets and the car keys. He threw the blankets and the keys out of the house. The keys got lost beneath the snow, but were soon found. The father drove to the nearest neighbor’s house about a mile away, but couldn’t rouse anyone. He drove to the next neighbor, and that neighbor was awake, preparing to milk the cows. That neighbor invited the young family in and called the fire department.

By the time the fire truck arrived, the house and everything the family owned was gone.

The good people of Lisbon Falls rallied to assist the young family over the next several weeks as they tried to find a furnished house to rent. The writer John Gould wrote about this family’s tragic event and the town’s warm embrace in a compelling story for Reader’s Digest the next year.

The story becomes even more remarkable when put in the context of the young parents who had chosen to move from the privileged environs of Darien, Connecticut to rural Maine. The father had been a champion swimmer at Yale, narrowly missing qualifying for the 1936 Winter Olympic Games in the breast stroke. As a boy, he had gone to camp in Maine; loved fishing and hunting; and no longer wanted part of the corporate grind. The mother had gone to private schools for her entire life and graduated from Smith College.

You might have guessed by now that the four-year old girl who saved the family by waking them all up in the middle of the night was my wife Tina. “I remember that night like it was yesterday,” she says, “and it still gives me chills to think about it.”

Tina’s parents (Walter and Betsey Savell) moved the family from Lisbon Falls to Brunswick in 1955. Walter opened a farm machinery business and went on to serve as President of the Chamber of Commerce. He died in 1958 of a heart attack while walking in the woods outside their house on Mere Point Road. Betsey lived in town another 38 years; she was a spirited volunteer for many organizations and a good friend to all her knew her.

I’m glad that the four-year old Tina knew enough to cry for help and wake the family. They might all have perished otherwise. And my own life would not have turned out as vibrant and full. Small miracles.

NOTE: Some readers might be interested in my History Happy Hour talk entitled, “What a Difference the Women Make! Bowdoin Before and After Women.” This event, sponsored by the Pejepscot Historical Society, is from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 11 at the Brunswick Inn at 165 Park Row in Brunswick.

David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary or suggestions for future “Just a Little Old” columns. direadw575@aol.com.