Firefighter

While visiting for a wedding in Duluth, I could not help but take a picture of these work clothes lying in a heap in our nephew's garage. In this picture there appear to be blood stains on the jacket, but they are not. It's just the accumulation of many, many hours of gritty and dangerous work. What a story, what a calling! Thanks, Dan, for the work you and all your fellow firefighters, including nephew Shaun and Uncle Willis, do to save lives.
Speaking of Uncle Willis, years ago when Dave and I were first married and living in Oregon, we visited Willis at his fire station in Sacramento. We were engaged in a lively game of volleyball with the firemen on the station's backyard when the ball was hit high in the air. I remember hearing some sort of alarm vaguely in the background as I was concentrating on getting a good hit on the ball. Up it went, down it came -- to an empty field. I looked around and the players were gone. We just had time to walk over to the fence and watch the fire trucks exit the station and roar down the street. May God prepare us all to be so ready to serve when the call comes.