A Personal Letter - Thank You Firefighters of Ayden
Posted: 3/14/2002
December 12, 2001 - Most of us still have September the 11th in the back of our minds. Many firefighters died in the line of duty trying to save other people�s lives. We have not forgotten, but we here, many miles away, though it was close, yet it far enough away, making it easier to continue on with our lives. As a spouse of a fire fighter, this is one time, in my heart that I am so thankful I live in a small town where my husband was not in the line of duty on that September day. He is safe here with our family.I saw the look in his eyes as we watched the news over and over again. I saw the longing that he wanted to be in the middle helping and doing something. This is in his blood. You could tell, that at a drop of a hat, he would go and do what ever it took to be of service in any way he could. I saw the longing in his eyes, yet in my heart, I was so thankful that this was one time the call of duty was not his. I guess you could say this was selfishness on my part. We take for granted that our love ones will come home, when they leave out on a call. We take so much for granted that this happens somewhere else and not here. It only takes one second, one moment and it could just as easily be our love ones who laid down his or her life in the call of duty.I stand proud up here, saying to each of you, that I am proud of our Fire fighters who �do� risk their lives each and every time they walk out of their doors in order to help someone else. Not always do they come home and say it was nothing, a fender bender or someone burning trash. Some times they come home and you can see the look in their eyes, this was not a good one. We lost someone, or maybe we don�t know if this person is going to make it or not. I have seen the stress, after a fatal crash, or the look of helplessness, as he came home and has found the body of the person who did not make it in a fire and often wonder, why would your put yourself through this torment?You see, I have felt the excitement when that fire whistle would sound, or his pager would beep. There has been times when we were in a restaurant and his beeper would go off, us ladies would stay and ride together while our men would rush out to the call of duty. There has been a couple of times when I have had the honor of driving to the �call� and I must say, there is something about turning on the �red light� that made my foot push that pedal to the floor. This is when I came to realize that it had to be the �red lights� that caused these guys go so fast. I felt it when I turned that �red light� on. The excitement was there. For some reason, Bud does not let me drive to often to one of these calls. I can�t figure that one out!But laying all that aside, I find myself feeling a sense of pride when he rushes out that door, wherever we might be, for I know in my heart, that whoever he is going to help, is in very good hands. I also know that this is not a game to him and that he takes this call of �duty� very seriously. The giving and the caring is why each of these men and women are special people. I know I could not do what they do for it takes special people to perform this kind of service for their fellow man. I stand here proud to say � Thank you� for all of your giving and caring that each and everyone of you give for our town, �Ayden�. |
