About 6 months, (just off probation) into service, we got a fire call for mutual aid to another town, and was an all nighter. Got back, went to shower, work, then back home. That evening at the supper table, my dad asked me why I was doing what I was doing. Told him I really enjoyed it. Fighting fire and starting EMS training. He just could NOT figure out why I was wasting my time doing something like that. He said I was wasting all this time, and not getting paid for any of it - I could not believe what I was hearing. He died 2 yrs later, (COPD) and I never did forgive him or forget that night.

In 1994, I married and in 1997 I convinced my wife to join up. By that time I was Nat. Cert. EMT A / FF. She also took and passed the Nat. test. When she joined and realized the feeling of accomplishment, the rush, for a lack of a better word, of helping others and firefighting. We have a total of 20 active people for a 300 square mile district.

Shortly before my Mom died in 2003, she gave me a 3-ring binder FULL of local newspaper articles and pictures of events that the department and I/we were involved in. I still remember that night that my dad told me I was wasting my time.

Like lots of other responders, we have both seen many scenes that we would very gladly block out, but cannot. Especially the ones involving kids and people we knew.