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Hometown Heroes

You Make the Difference

By Beverly HernandezPublished 2 years ago 14 min read
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Barbara F.

It is you! You are the hero! You make the difference. You mean something to me. As I read the prompt, I realized that there are several people who have crossed my path over the years who have made a difference in my life. Here are a few of these amazing people.

Dear 3rd grade Teacher,

Do you remember back in the late 1990’s, when I subbed as a para? You were my first real mentor. I chose the path of education because I knew my second marriage was not going to make it. I needed a career where I could manage my 5 children. I prepared copies, bulletin boards, worked with students, and assisted many of the grade level teachers with anything they and you asked of me. You specifically asked me to create a bulletin board with a black and white background and animals that the students were going to learn about. I remember pondering the task, wanting to make it spectacular.

Over the next few days, I put together the most amazing display of chosen animals for you. The entire school, staff and students congratulated you and praised the creativity of this bulletin board. I wish I could remember your name but you came to me and were brutally honest when you told me “I am sure you would make an amazing teacher. You should go to school for education.” I was stunned beyond belief! I had never really been told that I was good at something. Your words stayed with me over the next few months and I decided to start school. My goal was to be in early education, and with some credits from my earlier cosmetology and Occupational Health and Safety degrees, I was able to finish in three and a half years. I will always remember the words you said to me about being an amazing teacher. You were a wonderful mentor and my hero then and continue to be. Your thoughtful words will stay with me forever.

All my sincere appreciation,

Beverly

Dear Barbara F,

My student teaching with you in first grade was the best experience I could have ever had. You were a soft spoken teacher, with years of experience under her belt. I loved that your husband was the principal, and meeting your 3 children is a memory worthy of keeping. When I began student teaching with your class in late August, you had me watch and take notes of what you did, how your lessons began and ended, and how you interacted with your students. I observed for a week or two and you finally invited me to join you with a couple of lessons each day, slowly introducing me to the technical aspect of teaching and lesson preparation. As I progressed through the semester and began teaching on my own with your guidance, I became more confident with every piece of educating the students. I was even exposed to an autistic child which I had never been around before. The weeks flew by and it was only 4 weeks until the end of the semester when I actually taught the entire day. By then, it was time to plan for my upcoming graduation. I will never forget when you presented me with a Christmas tree full of dollar bills from every staff member at the school. What a wonderful and meaningful gift! To this day, I still have the tree, one or two of the dollar bills, and love seeing your posts on social media. Your mannerisms were what shaped me into a 1st grade teacher. Your loving, caring way with students inspired me to be the same caring and loving person. I’d like to thank you for all you have done for me and let you know how much you mean to me.

Thank you so much for being YOU,

Beverly

My Dear Aimee,

As one of my daughters, even though I don’t see it, I know you have worked so hard to be in the medical field and have for several years. You have gone from admitting to surgical technician, scrub tech and now you are an EMT on an ambulance. I am amazed at how far you have come in the field of medicine, how many facets of the medical field you have accomplished in a short amount of time. Your recent post of a document on social media regarding a question that most people ask when they see an EMT really hit home with me. This note has opened my eyes to the turmoil that you and so many others in the medical field go through and experience on a daily basis. I couldn’t imagine doing even half of what you do. Your strength, patience and perseverance amaze me every time I hear your stories and see your posts. I am reminded that you are an angel to many of your patients. If it wasn’t for you and others like you, we would not have the wonderful care that you provide daily. My heart swells with pride knowing that you are my daughter and you have accomplished so much in your young years. I want you to know that you make me proud!

I love you forever,

Beverly

Feel free to skip this - it is a copy of the post and is very graphic.

“What's the worst thing you've ever seen as a paramedic? I’ll never understand this. Why? Why do people constantly want to meet our demons? To pull back the curtain that we’ve been holding onto so tightly while screaming “DO NOT LOOK. THIS IS NOT FOR YOU!” and see the horrors we’ve seen? Can I remember minute details from some of the worst calls? Unfortunately, yes. The children who found their father’s pistol and thought it a toy, blasting away their younger brother because daddy left it on the bedside table. Or the daughter who can’t deal with life anymore and overdosed on pills. I don't understand why questions like this one keep coming up so frequently in slightly varied forms. Morbid curiosity perhaps? I don’t think you really understand the gravity of some of the incidents paramedics are involved in, and the toll it takes. So for any one who has ever asked; You may want this answer; but you have no clue what you ask. Step inside and see what you’ve found. My worst? The call for a 19 month old baby pulse barely there, lost it the first time a few minutes into the call. Oh we brought her back, but she still died 14 minutes later, at hospital with a whole team working on her. Do you know how painful it is to know that we brought her back this way, her family could not come with us back to the hospital as she was too unstable. It tore me apart to see her die. To know that we only bought her back long enough to get to hospital. Another call? Family of 4 hitting a cement truck head on, both instantly ignited. It was in such a rural setting that it took us 52 minutes to get there. When we stopped all 4 including a baby and a toddler had passed away only the truck driver survived, he committed suicide a week later leaving his newly wedded pregnant wife cause he couldn't get the sound and smell out of his head as a whole family burned to near ashes in front of him. Another one? How about the husband who we got called out to? Newly qualified, the scene was about 25 minutes from us. With a failing pacemaker he flatlined on me 13 times before we stopped at hospital, everytime I think this time I lost him and I started compressions and his back. I took one look at it as a newly qualified medic and said “Guys… we need to go… NOW.” The part that hurt the most? The wife came in and held the hand of her husband. Her now DEAD husband of 60 years. She only said two things. “Oh pappa…..” How about doing CPR on someone you were friends with after a fatal drug overdose? How do you deal with that one? Doing CPR on someone a year older than you when you’re just barely old enough to get into a bar. It's not right, and yet you ask. Do you think there is anything I wouldn’t give to bring him, or any of the other patients I lost, back into this world for the families that will never be whole again? Do you know how often I think about those kinds of calls?

You can’t possibly know, unless you are an experienced first responder, in which case, you would know that we don’t go around asking each other to remember and recount our worst days on the job. You want me to retell these stories, for what, your entertainment? After all that? We go right back to the station, and have to put on bright smiles and give kindergartners tours of the ambulance. They don’t need to know we're dying inside from earlier, they just need to see that the ambulance isn't scary, don’t let them in on the drowning victim, not much older than them, that was in here a year ago… Being a Paramedic can be very rewarding, sometimes we can bring people back from the very brink of death, back into the world of the living, but that reward comes at the cost of experiences like the ones I mentioned. All EMTs and Paramedics with any amount of time in the field will have stories of interesting, exciting rescues, saves or other calls that they are proud of, that didn’t end in tragedy. They will happily share those stories with you. However, when prompted for the “worst”, they may not want to relive those memories and/or expose you to some of the horrible things that can happen in the world on a daily basis. You know not what you are really asking when you propose questions like this one. Ask first responders about their best calls or most miraculous saves, instead of their worst experiences. Trust me, it will be more interesting for you, and less uncomfortable for the first responder.

The last person who had made a huge difference in my life was my mom.

Dear Mom,

I wish I could tell you how proud I am to be your daughter and how much I love you and miss you! I want to pick up the phone and send you a message, call you, facetime with you, but I can’t. I want to share all things with you. I miss being able to do that. If you were here right now, I would put my arms around you and tell you how much I love you since you left, and I wasn’t able to. You were such a hard worker all of your life, and you taught me that wonderful work ethic. I have been successful in passing on that hard work training to my children as well. They would make you proud mom. I sure hope you are watching over all of us and enjoying time with uncle Paddy, Grandma Fae, Westley, and others. I do have one question for you: Why didn’t you tell us who our real father was? Barbara and I were so hurt when we found this out from Aunt Bert. Why did you make her promise to keep it quiet until your death? I wouldn’t have thought less of you and I would have been able to get to know him. Did you know that he had 3 kids? I have met Angela and Rob but not the third one yet. You should have told us. I know you went through a lot with your relationships but you could have shared this with us. It is over and I don’t hate you for it. I love you still and always will. Please know that.

Some background on my mom.

She was born in 1939 to a couple with 4 other children. She grew up riding the trains back and forth to various cities where both parents lived since they were separated. She had her first child at 14 years of age and had 3 more children. My twin sister and I were the last of her births and we were 3 months early, weighing only 6 pounds together. We remained in the hospital for 3 months before we were big enough to go home. She was married and divorced 4 times and dated numerous men later on. The final relationship had left her with a lot of debt. We lived on a farm in rural Montana until we moved to Colorado in 1970. At that time she was married to my step dad and was soon divorced. She got a job at Climax Molybdenum Mine where she started underground working all shifts, to surface maintenance working as a janitor then as a painter. She worked hard to get what she had and kept us fed, clothed and educated. She bought her first brand new Ford Pinto station wagon in 1977 and never had another new car. She finally took retirement from the mine and began working on a dairy farm. Each job she took was hard work, long hours, but she felt rewarded for her hard work. In 2008, she was diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent surgery to remove part of the lung but ended up losing the whole lung due to the spread of cancer. She went through chemo and lost her hair. It eventually returned and almost to the day, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. This time, they removed the lump and she went through radiation, losing her hair again. She was a trooper through it all and somewhat enjoyed retirement with limited abilities. It was super tough for her to be tied to an oxygen machine after all the activities she was used to. She had a passion for the outdoors: hunting, camping, gardening, etc. She slowly accepted her fate and visited family and friends as much as she could. June 20, 2017 is when I was scheduled to have double knee replacement. May 31 was her birthday and after school got out (I am a 1st grade teacher) I traveled to Wyoming where she lived with my brother. We did some sightseeing around Montana, visited several family members including her brother, whom she hadn’t seen in about 20 years. We visited graves of the deceased family members, went to her other brother's cabin and relaxed. I brought her home with me and she stayed to help me recover through my surgery. As August neared, she knew I was on the mend and could manage without her, so she went back to Wyoming. Later in September, she had to be flown to Billings due to a severe illness where they intubated her and strapped her arms and feet down so she would not pull out the hoses. I went up to see her the following weekend and witnessed the doctor shoving the hose down into her lung so hard that she was convulsing with pain. The next day she was able to have the tube out and began her recovery. A week later she returned home. Not quite 2 weeks later, my brother found her in the bathroom doubled over in pain. Again she was flown to Billings and was put on life support due to several diagnoses. When my brother called me and told me about her current state, I remember vividly sitting down on the stairs in my bi-level house. I couldn’t believe what he was telling me. She had developed sepsis in her entire body and had gangrene in her stomach cavity. The doctors could remove the part of her stomach and intestines that were infected but she would have to be on a colostomy bag for the rest of her life and her stomach open for the infection to clear up. Each of us 5 children knew she did not want that kind of life for herself and it was decided that they would turn off life support. 15 minutes later, my brother called me back and told me that she was gone. I did not believe, could not believe, but had to accept this news as hard as it was! She was always hard on us during our growing up years, but I would have never wished this on anyone. She was so strong throughout her life that she taught us “if you want something

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About the Creator

Beverly Hernandez

!st Grade! I have taught first grade for 20+ years and have only 3 till retirement. I love crafting and the outdoors. Fishing is my favorite pastime!

Writing a story for this medium has been interesting to say the least!

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