I HATE It When They Get Hurt...

Thursday, 23 Aug 2007

I was supposed to be riding with Lt. Michael Morse on Rescue 1 tomorrow night, Friday, 24 August. It was a rather cool week, nasty weather and Friday is supposed to be the first hot day of the week. Surely the night will be chaotic with people trying to salvage their last few days of summer.

But…

One of the most difficult things about having friends who are firefighters is the frequency with which they get injured. It’s horrible when I watch the news sometimes… “Fire in Providence today… two firefighters taken to the hospital with injuries… no word on their condition…” It can be terrifying – especially when I break out the cell phone and start dialing any of the sixty some-odd numbers I’ve stored in there of members of the PFD and no one is answering. It’s bad enough to me to know that any of “My Firefighters” has been hurt, but the fright can turn to panic when I find out that the company involved in the incident is filled with my close personal friends.

On that note… let’s get back to the “but”… My cell phone starts to vibrate, but I’m working at the bookstore and we’ve got a ridiculous line filled with parents and their teenage kids. Ninety percent of those kids are being reprimanded by the parents because they have waited (AGAIN!!!) until the very last second to complete their summer reading. Obviously, I can’t answer my phone. A short time later, I’m able to take my afternoon break – ten minutes without listening to, “when the hell are you going to stop doing this, Little Timmy?” I take my cell phone from my pocket and look at the screen – it was Michael who had called and he’s left me a voice mail message. I dial in to my voice mail and listen.

“Hey, Erin, it’s Michael Morse. I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news – well, not bad news, really, but, well… I hurt my back during my shift today…” I wasn’t quite as panicked as I sometimes feel, because it was Michael, himself, telling me that he got hurt. We’ll have to set up another time for a ride along and he’s telling me that he feels awful about it. About that time I felt I'd rather be listening to Timmy's mom yelling at him for not having read "Of Mice and Men" yet.

I return his call… getting his voice mail. “Michael, it’s Erin. No worries about the ride along – I’m not concerned about the filming. I’m worried about you. I hope that you’re relatively okay. Give me a call and let me know how you’re doing. We’ll set up another time – I still want to film with you. Just please take care of yourself.”

My sister calls me an “empath” – says that I worry too much most of the time. I can’t say that she’s wrong. My best friend has been telling me the same thing for the last twenty-nine years. I just can’t help it, though – it’s who I am and what I am. When I call someone “friend”, I MEAN it. I worry for them, I feel their pain, I keep them in my thoughts and prayers.

My firefighters, though… man, that can be rough. Every time I hear a siren (and yes, I CAN tell the difference between a police siren and a fire siren, though I worry for all of them) I say, “keep them safe”. Even if I’m just rolling down the road and I see a fire engine, “keep them safe”. These people lay their lives on the line every single time they get on the truck and roll to a call. Just look at what happened with Ladder 6! Crazy drivers trying to cut off fire trucks in their little Toyota Corollas. Oy, they drive me nuts.

THIS is the very thing that has compelled me to do this – to take on this massive project that sometimes overwhelms me. It’s WORTH the work… because THEY are worth the work.

Be well & stay safe, everyone. I love you, my friends – and I MEAN that. Oh, and please do get well soon, Michael. Looking forward to rolling with a PFD Legend. :-)