My crew and I had gone to the grocery store to shop for the food we would eat over those two days (lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch and dinner). During our time in the store we were approached several times by other shoppers who wanted to express their condolences to us regarding the loss of our brother firefighters in Yarnell. I am always humbled when I have someone come up to me and thank us for our service to the community. In my mind I am just doing my job, but with the recent tragedy I was feeling just a bit more pride in what my fellow firefighters and I do for the citizens we are sworn to serve.
On this day we also had two older women that seemed to be shopping on the same aisles as us as we went through the store. At one point they approached me and, as had happened a number of times that day, and said "Captain, my sister and I really want you to know how much it means to us that we have brave young men such as you there to protect us". I thanked her and her sister and told them it was our privilege to serve them. The woman started to cry and said "We really want to do something to help the families of those boys that died".
There was nothing else I could do but stand there in the produce aisle and hug this complete stranger as she cried on my shoulder for several minutes while other shoppers just stopped and watched the scene.
After a time she apologized and said she just felt so overwhelmed by grief over what had happened and that she felt especially bad about the families of the fallen firefighters. I told her I understood and that we appreciated her support. I was also able to tell her that there are a number of charities that will help in these situations so I told her about the 100 Club, an organization that is set up to assist the families when a firefighter or police officer dies in the line of duty. (www.100club.org)
She again thanked us for what we do and my crew and I went on about our shopping.
As we went up to the check out counter the tones went off on my radio for a motor vehicle accident just down the street. We pushed our cart over to the customer service desk and jogged out to our truck to respond. This particular Fry's grocery store is very close to our fire station and all of the crews (3 shifts) do their shopping here. The store personnel have become accustomed to our sudden departures and will push our cart into the walk in cooler to keep our food fresh until we return after completing our emergency run.
We went to the call, which turned out to be a minor "fender bender" and then returned to the store about 30 minutes later. The store manager saw us coming in the front door and called for a clerk to bring out our shopping cart.
The groceries had been bagged and there was a note taped to a receipt on the bags. It was from the women that had stopped me in the store.
The note said: "Thank you firemen for all that you do."
They had paid for our groceries ($65).
The manager then handed me an envelope. In it was a $100 bill. The manager told us that the women had insited on paying for our food and told him to give us the $100. They told him "Those boys will get the money to where it needs to go."
The store manager then handed me another envelope containing another $120. He told us that several other other shoppers had given him the cash when they saw the two women explaining to the store manager that they wanted to pay for our groceries their donation with him.as well.
Now I am a big, strong, tough guy but I suddenly was having a difficult time seeing. I must have had somthing in my eyes because they were watering like crazy.
I have been a firefighter for over 35 years and as a part of my job I have dealt with alot of tragedy and pain. As I like to think of it, we show up to help when you are having a very bad day. The danger personal risk is always there. It is a part of the job, but it is never easy when things go bad.
On 9-11-01 I lost 343 brother and sister firefighters. Just last month I attended the funeral of a young (23 years old) Phoenix Firefighter who was killed in the line of duty and on Tuesday I will attend the memorial in Prescott. Since that day in Yarnell there have been at least two firefighters (that I know of) that have died in the line of duty.
All in all I have developed a pretty tough hide but when I drop this envelope of donated money into the 100 Club collection box that will be set up at the memorial I will likely have tears in my eyes and will be thinking of the sacrifice that was made, the families they've left behind and the woman that cried on my shoulder in the produce aisle.
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