As first responders, emergency workers and chaplains, it is our first instinct to want to help when a tragedy or disaster occurs. Something stirs inside each of us and we can’t seem to calm ourselves until we have assisted in relief efforts. This reaction held true when Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. With over 92,000 square miles of devastation, our hearts broke for those who were deeply impacted by the storm.

For many of us, our first instinct was to pick up and run to one of those …

I have a handbook.
I have a list of items to bring.
I have a uniform.
And I have a suitcase packed and ready to go.
Tomorrow I leave for Emmitsburg, Maryland to participate as a family escort at the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s Memorial Weekend.  I have been the presiding chaplain for two years but this will be the first time I have been assigned to specifically care for one family for the whole weekend.  Tonight I am starting to get nervous.
For 10 years I have been caring for the families of fallen …

Never forget our brothers from Ladder 3….. Never forget 9/11

Twelve years ago today…it really seems like yesterday and yet, a lifetime ago.  Twelve whole years ago I laid on an ambulance gurney wondering if the next day would even come.  I laid there waiting for the medics to choose whether to life-flight me or send me to the closest hospital which was only a few blocks away but didn’t have a trauma center.  Twelve years ago decisions were made, mistakes were made, and lives were changed forever.  Twelve years ago.

Twelve years ago, my career as a firefighter ended and …

The Annual Texas A&M Municipal Fire School is going on this week.  It’s kicked off by a big expo at the Reed Arena which features all kinds of fire service companies and organizations.  The arena floor if filled with fire trucks of all kinds.  When we down on the floor we let Catherine loose and it became a fire truck playground.  She loved climbing up and down the stairs, sitting in the driver’s seats and pressing the buttons, climbing in the compartments, and running around and around.  It was fun …

It’s been several years in the making, at the least the planning, resource collecting, writing, etc but last Friday we officially launched our TX LODD Task Force website.  There has been a lot of late nights, sweat, and tears but there has also been a tremendous amount of excitement and pride.  I love doing the work that I have been chosen to do and everyday I shake my head and thank my God in amazement.  I feel so tremendously blessed to have the support from my family, especially my husband, …

Catherine is 25 months old today.  One month in her second year of life and she’s already accomplished so much.  She’s a smart girl with a love for life and a deep love for her family and friends.  I didn’t get a chance last month to make a list of all that she is doing now, so I figured I would do it today.  So here it is in bulleted form:

The biggest thing she has going on right now is that she is nearly potty trained!  We started getting her …

I think she has great potential to be a firefighter when she grows up. John says NO, quite adamantly I must say. He doesn’t want her marrying a firefighter either. What?! Okay, dear sweet husband of mine…I was a firefighter and I married a firefighter! Does that make me chopped liver? I think we should have some tradition in the family….look at how well she aims that hose!  A truckie she is not but she would do a mighty fine job on the nozzle…just like …

I have been wanting to write a post for a while now about the work that I do, the work that I do with the families of the fallen.  I have received emails asking about details, wondering about the obscurity in some of the posts that I have written after I have come back from a detail.  I have pondered the words that I would write, pinching them and molding them into some sort of shape that would do justice and give honor to the names that I know too …

This is the motto for most fire and police honor guards and pipe and drum bands.  They form a group, then practice and practice and wait to be dispatched to the funerals of their retiree’s and their fallen.  They will also march beautifully in parades and that is where most people will conjure up a memory or two about a firefighter dressed up in dress blues or a police officer donning a kilt and a drum.  But the folding of the flag and the sound of a bagpipe in the …

I am here in California for the National Fallen Firefighter’s survivors conference.  This nearly week long event is put together to help the spouses, parents, siblings, and children of firefighters who have died in the line of duty network with each other, have a chance to get away, take a few classes, and just heal.  During this conference they are holding a special class to teach the fire service and the survivors how to put together response teams that will respond to a department and family that have experienced a …

It is with deep regret, on this Easter Day, that I share with you that our Houston Fire Department lost two firefighters in the line of duty in the early morning hours.  They were fighting a house fire when somehow they became trapped and were unable to make it outside when a pull-out request was made.
Over the years, Houston has suffered the loss of many firefighters.  Today, two too many.  It scares me to think about John leaving the comforts and stability and somewhat safe confines of the airport …