Letter to the Editor

Your view: A firefighter's wife

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

I am coming to you as a firefighter's wife. Back in September of 2001, while living in the state of New Jersey, my husband decided to be a fireman. It was all due to the events of 9/11. We lived extremely close to New York and it really put an impact on my husband to help save lives. I learned then and there that it was going to be hard to be a firefighter's wife. All the long nights, the worrying and just the time he spends away from me is hard to endure.

I have learned in the past year or so though, just how important he and his family of firefighters really are and how worth being his wife really is.

In November of 2003, my brother was assaulted in the streets of Sikeston, and it forced my husband and I to relocate back home here to Missouri. He came to Miner and became a firefighter. I never knew until just a short time ago, that one of his fellow firefighters was an EMT on the scene the night my brother got hurt and his wife was the ER nurse on duty that night. Without them, my brother may not have made it. (He is in a nursing home, learning how to walk and talk again) But it's people like them that make citizens like me realize how much we need the EMTs, firefighters and everyone else that help out in the community to make the world a better place.

The firestation here in Miner has had an untalked about brotherhood, that is what a good strong firehouse has, that comes together in times of need. They are the most unselfish ones that go out of their way, without pay, to save lives. That is why they have pulled together through all of this. Without Benny Thurston, they could not have the complete family. He is their rock, and that is why they stand behind him as a family. That family now needs your help.

It seems as though there are people who don't want this family here anymore, and they don't understand what it is doing to these guys not to fight fires or help the people and do the job they need to do. We need you to sign the petition that we have circulating the city, to support this family of fireman who have been here for you all, and to help Benny to get back the job he does best. Please save our family, Because they would save yours!

Patti Cantrell Harris