Dear Editor,
Most of us do whatever we can in life to protect ourselves from harm’s way. Be it physical or emotional pain, we move away from it, not towards it.
Firefighters, on the other hand, run towards it, to help us.
We think of them as they do their work, and worry about them getting physically injured on the job, and think about how can we keep them safe.
But how do we protect their hearts? How do we shield them from the sights beyond imagination and the sounds that will wake them from their sleep for decades?
How do we even begin to understand what they have felt when they could not save a young one’s life and then return home that night and hold their children tight, and then return to work?
How can we help our firefighters, comfort and honour them every day? We know we can never really protect those hearts of theirs, we know they would not have it any other way.
Just to know we care is always a good thing, but I think to understand we know their pain, and that our hearts break with them and for them, is important, too.
Marilyn Piticco, Langley