wrong impressions

As an emergency responder one of your worst nightmares is responding to a loved ones accident.

My partner and I were sitting in the fire hall playing cards with some of the other volunteers.  We used to play poker with M&M’s, sunflower seeds, popcorn or any other kind of stuff we could find. If no one had treats it was toothpicks.  We were hungry but everything in the small town we were in closed at 8.  My husband was getting off work at 10 and coming down so we called him and asked him to bring us some chicken.

We continued to play cards watching the clock as all the treats except toothpicks were gone and our stomachs were growling. I just said it was time for Joe (not his real name) to arrive with the chicken.  About 15 minutes later he still had not showed up and we were starting to worry and the pager went off.

The dispatcher said to respond to a wreck with injuries, she gave us the highway and the milepost and then said “we have a blue pickup over the grade”.  My heart just stopped, my husband was driving a blue pickup.  We took off to the wreck praying the whole time. We came around the corner and we could see the bottom of the pickup and it was a regular pickup.  Our pickup was a dually. I was never so glad to only see one wheel in my life.  There was my pickup sitting alongside the road, my husband was late because he was down treating the person in the wrecked pickup.

My heart leaped with joy, I am sure all the people watching were wondering why we were headed down to the pickup with a big smile on our face.  You never think of things like that at the time. The impression it gives other people when we were grinning from ear to ear.  We were not happy about the wreck just so relieved that our loved one was safe.