Castlebar - County Mayo

My Love

My love is gone tonight, my love is working a 24 hour shift, first half of the day as a Paramedic and until the AM pulling a shift as Firefighter. I don’t sleep well on these nights, so I find refuge in listening to music and writing. My love, my husband has been a Paramedic since 1984 and shortly will be joining the Fire Department. We met while both working on the ambulance. Our life is very non- traditional in the sense that for all the years we have been together, many odd hours, many holidays of working, and hours of being apart. I miss him even after all these years of being together. We are very opposite I an extrovert, Loy and introvert. What we share are core values, belief in God and shared values for raising our children. We are far from perfect, in fact we struggle daily with just simply living life, financially we hang by a thread, but our beliefs bind us together. We were really good friends before being romantically involved, I believe our established friendship and sharing core values has saved us many a time, since life at times can be so difficult and brings stress just living. I also realize be careful what you wish for. For a long time we had been hoping for and wishing for Loy to get onto the Fire Department. Now that this becoming a reality, especially after Sep 11, I would not be truthful if I didn’t admit I am a bit afraid, maybe that’s why I am writing tonight wondering will he be safe attending to a fire? For fourteen years our social life has consisted of other paramedics, Emergency Room personal, and firefighters. I have found it is difficult to mainstream, people don’t understand the different hours and many times people with other professions, people feel awkward being with emergency medical /rescue personal, I think it reminds people of their own mortality, and that is uncomfortable for a lot of people. It is summer finally, we have a great front porch to sit on and I look forward to Loy coming home after his shift and sitting together on the porch sharing coffee and taking in the beauty of Pikes Peak Mountain. Tomorrow night, we have our tradition of end of school celebration for summer, with just the four of us our two kids, a Bar B Q and then at night putting a quilt on the grass and looking at the stars. I miss my love tonight and look ever so forward to him coming home safely in the morning and sharing the day! Cherish those you love!