I spent the entire day in classes dealing with death. I have had some experience with death as I have done too many funerals and memorial services. But most of today was focused on the death of emergency personal and how to handle that. The protocols alone were completely overwhelming. As one instructor put it; " Nobody does funerals like the fire service".
We learned about "Delivering the Death Message" for the better part of today. I remember a time not long ago, where I had to comfort an EMT after they found a women who had hung herself. I also remember having to go to the two different schools to gather up 3 kids and tell them the bad news that their mother was dead. Thankfully my wife, teachers, principles, and school counselors were so professional and helpful the personal trauma of that event was minimized for myself. I also remember back to a call we took were the man had taken a large caliber rifle and did himself in. I was able to assist a few of the guys who were traumatized from that whole experience. There are also other stories of death that affected many of the fellows in our hall, it goes with the line of work we do. Therefore it is an invaluable thing chaplains do when they are there for and serve those who serve others in their time of need.
I found that throughout the day there were times when I found my own eyes welling up with tears as the instructors broke down expressing their own stories of tragedies. They shared with us their dealings with the reality of death that surrounds the firefighters, their families, friends and of course the thousands of victims that are left behind after death strikes their lives.
The room fell "dead" silent as one presenter walked us through the fallen fire fighters from B.C. over the past year. Very moving.
Death. No one really talks about it much outside of funerals. It did feel a bit strange to be talking about it all day long. Kind of made me feel a bit mortal, like I'm not as invincible as I think or feel I am. Very sobering day. As Solomon said, "Death is the destiny of every man and the living should take it to heart and learn from it." Today I learned about it.
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2 comments:
I guess that no one really thinks about death until it smacks them in the face. I can see the logic in preparing emergency workers in case death comes knocking, but wow- talk about a bad day at work.
Well, I hope that you'll never have to use what you saw in real-life. Thanks for being there when the stupid people of America drop that lighted match. We really do appreciate you.
Ironic isn't it? We talk about finding our destiny, as though it were something other than the grave. Sarah's been wanting to talk about death lately. She's been asking stuff like, "if you had to choose Satan or death, what would you choose?" or "would my great grandparents take care of me if I died and went to heaven?"
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