EPILOGUE
In the summer, two and a half years after finding irrefutable evidence that Sergeant Tom was the founder of Palin, Gina Lott, heavily pregnant and wearing her ceremonial chain with the symbolic key to the city, sat alongside the Governor on the dais on The Balcony on Gina's modernized Youngerman Building (formerly known as the Gaynor Building). Tubby wearing his mayoral chain sat on the other side of the Governor with his wife. Behind them were the Governor's wife and a top aide along with Nathan holding 2-year-old Oriana and Zoë Ross of the Founders' Society.
A crowd of some two thousand citizens packed in the closed-off intersection. The Governor made a short speech and declared the Founder's Memorial to Sergeant Thomas Palin officially in place. At that moment the Amy exploded an enormous star shell above the scene and three Army buglers played 'Taps'.
The monument was exactly what Gina wanted and in a newspaper poll the design and proposed placement had won the support of 87.8% of respondents. It was a full-size bronze of a horse and cavalryman with saber raised, the face very much like that from the old photo of Sergeant Tom. It was set on a three-stepped circle of flower gardens and had cost an enormous amount of money, the council paying half and a state grant contributing the other half.
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After the ceremony at 'Palin Intersection', the official party traveled by bus to the Palin-Gina Lott Events Center a mile away to join 400 guests arriving for the official luncheon. Gina, on behalf of protesting citizens, had led the campaign she named 'Tubby's Folly' to have the Events Center located at the vacated railways freight yards instead of being pushed across the river into city's second largest industrial area that included a huge meat plant. Securing the railway land and sufficient parking for 10,000 vehicles cost the city $22 million. But as Gina had argued before a commission appointed to settle the dispute between the council and a huge number of protesting citizens, the council would secure forever that prime site as public land for a valued public amenity. Before the commission delivered its decision the council advised it had changed its mind and would proceed with the railways yards proposal. At that many citizens began cheerfully calling the mayor Tubby. He found he liked that and forgave Gina for opposing him head-on and temporarily giving him a bad name.
Gina was now a minor celebrity, known beyond the state for matching up her city with its founder, being profiled in leading national magazines and in the year after solving the founder riddle, was named in fourth position in the country's most influential 'Woman of the Year' declaration.
She had failures of course and other triumphs, the most memorable being captured in the photo of an estimated 400 women, standing in candlelight vigil outside Palin Hospital when Gina had been rushed in for a premature birth. That newsworthy photo circulated far beyond the state, being a most unusual outreach of support. Gina had joined the public campaign a year earlier to have birthing facilities and staffing ratios at the hospital improved. She opted to lead the march though the city to the hospital after city authorities refused to issued a permit for the march because it was scheduled for a Friday, peak day for traffic flows. Campaign organizers pulled out of leading the march, leaving the potential protest in disarray, Gina volunteered to head the parade and be arrested, if that's what it took. The police backed off under instructions when Gina appeared at the head of the parade wearing her Freedom of the City ceremonial chain.
The media had been advise of the threat of arrests and had gathered around Gina licking their lips at the potential for a good story. When there was no arrest the media used the theme, 'Heroine of the City Forces Police Back-down'. The march reached the hospital where the chief administrator invited Gina inside, accompanied by two other marchers of her choice, to begin negotiations. In typical flamboyant style Miss Lott arrived for the talks flanked by a Catholic nursing sister in habit and the mayor's very pregnant baby sister -- another great photo and filming opportunity for the media.
So when Gina slipped on a patch of water in Palin Mall and felt her baby was coming, three weeks early, she was rushed to the hospital. Women began networking when hearing a radio news item about the mishap. Women contacted were requested to bring candles and began gathering outside the hospital late afternoon. As women left after an hour or so more women arrived to replace then. The crowd roared approval when it was announced Gina had refused a C-section. Just before 9:30 it was announced little Oriana had arrived and mother and baby were doing well. A big photo of Oriana in Gina's arms appeared on the front page of the Post next morning along with the very impressive photo of the candlelight vigil.
