My hero is my husband. I wasn’t sure which category to put him in. He fits into several that are on this website. He is a loving husband, soldier, paramedic, father to our children…and our pets, friend, and currently works at the local Veteran’s Administration Medical Center.
He’s the health technician for the Audiology department and runs the walk in clinic. The reason he is my hero isn’t only because of the risks he’s taken for our country, the risks he takes to save the lives of strangers, the time he spent away from his family to help other people, or the gunshots, vehicle wrecks, broken bones, or other injuries he’s suffered in defense of others and our country. He’s been in every military conflict since Desert Storm in the early 1990’s, several domestic disasters including Hurricane Katrina when it destroyed his hometown of New Orleans, and MANY sleepless nights away from his family to help others as a civilian paramedic and combat medic. The biggest reason he deserves the title of Hero is what he does every day.
He gets up every morning and helps me get our kids ready for school. When we got married he had two sons from a previous relationship and I had one, also from a previous relationship. He’s been in my son’s life since he was 2 years old and has taken over as his father from the start. We make breakfast, walk the dogs, get all of the kids ready and then we all leave. He takes our older two boys to school, I take our youngest. After that he goes to work to take care of fellow veterans in his clinic at the hospital. He performs hearing tests, treats some ear diseases, services hearing aids, makes models for new hearing aids that he orders for the veterans, and much more. He’s also a LPN and Paramedic so when there’s an emergency nearby he’s often right there offering any help he can, or being called to the ER to help when they get overwhelmed. After work he picks our older sons up and heads home. Our youngest son and I are usually already there waiting for them.
After work he takes time to play with the kids, help with their homework, or anything else they need. He helps me with dinner, dishes, cleaning, and taking care of our three furry kids. We have two mini dachshunds and an elderly cat who demand almost as much care as our kids. If the cat isn’t grouchy from arthritis, our female dachshund is battling her health issues, and at the same time our male dachshund puppy is usually destroying something important. In his spare time he works on computers. We run a small computer repair business from our home.
Even with our crazy schedule and full house he always takes the time to help a friend, family member, co worker, or new customers with their computer problems. Most of these repairs are done on site so he leaves to help even more people so they don’t have to be without their computers any longer than they have to. We all know how important home computers have become to our lives, careers, sense of humor, and more. My favorite clients are the ones who pay us in homemade cookies! We have some elderly clients who have become our friends over the years. I don’t work out of the home so we understand tight budgets. Whenever we can, our repairs are done free of charge.
Until we started dating I’d been a single mom, worked full time, and was going to college full time. I left my son’s father when he was only 3 months old. I met Patrick when my son was almost two years old. We became friends. After a while he asked if I wanted to start dating. At first I said no. I didn’t think I had time for a relationship. I really didn’t have time to make new friends if dating my friend ruined our friendship. Eventually I agreed to go on a date. That lead to several more dates and three years later we got married.
I know what it takes to raise a child on your own while trying to make a good life for them. For me it took my entire family chipping in to help so I could work and go to college. There are a lot of wives and mothers out there who truly love and appreciate their husbands. I think those of us who know what it’s like to raise a child without them appreciate them that much more. It takes a special kind of person to want to spend time with a single mom after taking care of others and his own children all day.
I got my degree but not in what I was after. I wanted to be a paramedic but I settled for a lesser degree and quit going to school when he got injured. He sustained a permanent spinal injury during military duty. He was sent home early but injured. We went through years of doctor visits, physical therapy, specialists, x rays, MRI’s, and lists of tests too long to mention. Finally he had surgery to help repair some of his spinal injuries. It was supposed to be a 2 hour surgery to place hardware on his spine to fuse the damaged vertebra. There was more damage than the doctor expected. The surgery took over 6 hours. That was the longest 6 hours of my life. While the doctors operated on his spine I sat in the waiting room scared to death that something had gone wrong.
After he recovered he picked right back up where he left off when he got hurt. He wasn’t able to serve in the military any more but everything else was back to normal. Now he’s able to spend time with me, our children, our friends and family. Just as important to him, was getting back to taking care of others. He lives to take care of other people in any way he can. At work, at home, at their homes, anywhere and at any time. Someone who has been through so much and still has so much compassion and love to give others will always be a hero to me.
Love
Claire Sargent
