Saturday 9 July 2011

Grateful for .... the safety of others



This week the weather has been what some might call "undesirable" with gusty winds, rain, snow, and icy roads. Personally our family look forward to a play in the snow.

What our family DOES NOT look forward to the sound of hubby's pager for so many reasons. Although my husband is a committed, long term volunteer of our local State Emergency Service, for us it means...
  1. Someone, or more than one person is in a position of needing help. Whether they have had a car accident, having trouble with flood waters or storm conditions, or need to be searched for.
  2. Often the person in need may have sustained injury. The injuries vary, especially in a car accident so not only are they needing help to get out of their situation, but often need urgent medical care.
  3. The person in need is the worry of someone else. Whether the person/s is someones' son, nephew, best friend, husband, father, neighbour (I'm sure you get the idea of what I'm trying to say) the fact that they are in need is causing worry for someone.
  4. The situation does not always have a happy ending with everyone going home. It is particularly these moments when the our volunteers and the community feels the full force of the situation. 
  5. Being from a rural community, the volunteers are bound to know some of the people they go out to help. This isn't always easy and on several occassions, the person in need of help has been a relative.
  6. The volunteers have to leave what they are doing at that moment, whether it is sleeping, grocery shopping or on a family outing.
  7. The volunteers have to be out in that foul weather for who knows how long until the job is done.

So we are ever so grateful that this week, with the road and weather conditions, that the people in our community have not been in a situation to need help. We are grateful for not having to hear the pager.
Very grateful that we have not had to worry about what sort of situation our volunteers are walking into.

3 comments:

  1. Very well done to your husband and your afmily for supportive family. It is good to be involved with the community even when challenging too.

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  2. It sounds like you do a fantastic, challenging job. Good on you! I can definitely understand being grateful to not hear the pager, it must be nice to have a break even if it's due to inside weather (although inside-weather can be nice too). I popped over from maxabella, hope you're keeping warm! x

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  3. I think it's wonderful that your family gives something back via the SES. I commend all families who commit to this valuable organisation.

    My hub is a member of the street fire brigade, but fortuately they've only been called out once and no one was hurt. x

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