My Friend, My Husband, My Hero

Submitted by: Dawna Riding

Before we even met at a national first aid competition in Quebec my husband was in the service of helping others. He became and EMT while studying as a full time student at UNB. Logging many hours with St. John Ambulance and Nashwak Keswick Ambulance he lived by the pager. Tired of the limitations on his ability to help he went to medical school in Halifax, where we started our story together.

Over the years we have been each others therapist/debriefer many times. He was my support after being first truck on the scene of a building collapse and many calls. I shared the worst moments of peoples lives with many people I didn’t know. I was a paramedic in Nova Scotia.

We moved, set up a medical practice and joined the local fire department together. Today I admire the man I married more than I ever knew I could. He has resuscitated infants so that their parents could have the gift of a child. He has eased people from this life to what waits for them. He has helped people when the odds were against them, and at the scene of an airplane crash was the firefighter with the skills needed for the deceased and the living. He wakes at night to the pager or phone for whoever needs him next.

Last year he was my hero when I was suffering a medical emergency in our home. As I was struggling to breath and turning blue he called for help when he couldn’t fix it.

I owe to this man many things, he is a fantastic father, husband, friend and counsellor. He will always be my hero as I look at people that wouldn’t be with their families without him, myself included.