My niece/goddaughter married at the age of 30 to a man who worked at the farmer’s co-op in a small town in Minnesota. He also was a member of the volunteer fire department in the town, and was well liked by everyone. They had a son and a house and were well established in their lives.
He developed stomach cancer, and died soon after at the age of 40. The funeral was at the firehall, the nicest and possibly most important building in the town (besides the grain elevator). They had moved the firetrucks out, which gave space for the huge crowd that showed up.
Of course it was a sad funeral, considering his age, but when the “last call” klaxon sounded, tears flowed. Then they took the helmet with his name on it down from the shelf and presented it to their then seven-year old son. Talking to my niece afterward, she said she was pretty stoic and holding up well during the funeral, up until they did the helmet presentation, when she said she just lost it and broke out bawling. Just like everyone else there. It still tears me up today.
They moved back to their (our) hometown, and she’s raising him as a great kid. The helmet sits on a shelf at their new home.
My wife works with an emergency manager. He is having to retire after decades both as a cop and emergency manager and you may know there are a lot of former first responders in emergency management (important in the next paragraph). I think Allan planned to never to retire, he has been eligible for years but this job is his life. He is being forced to retire because his body is riddled with metastasized cancer. If he outlives 2024 it’ll be a miracle.
One of the receptionists thought that at his retirement party it would be cool if they radio, “Dispatch to Allan. Dispatch to Allan.” and he replied over the radio, “Allan out.” A lot of his coworkers had to explain to her where, given the circumstances, this was a very, VERY bad idea.
I once attended the funeral of a sheriff’s officer (the son of a friend). I barely knew the guy, but hearing the dispatcher’s voice tremble was heartbreaking.