1. “I learned about death that day.”

She was an elderly lady, doubled over in her flowerbed.

I didn’t do anything because I was 6, but my dad jumped out of the Van and ran over to her to give her CPR. He was a volunteer firefighter. Wasn’t able to save her, it had been a few hours I guess.

Brain aneurysm if I remember correctly.

I learned about death that day.

2. “You haven’t had a bad day until you’ve performed CPR on a corpse.”

In the course of my job I’ve found several. The worst was when the asshole 911 dispatcher told me that since he couldn’t confirm that the lady was dead (she had obviously been dead for at least 12 hours) that I had to start doing CPR on her until the EMT’s arrived. I knew the call was being recorded so I had to comply. You haven’t had a bad day until you’ve performed CPR on a corpse.

3. “Christmas morning 2011 I woke up with my fiancé dead, his arms still wrapped around me.”

Christmas morning 2011 I woke up with my fiancé dead, his arms still wrapped around me. He had passed away in his sleep. What woke me up was the blood he had coughed up in the middle of the night all over my back. I sat up and tried to wake him up and noticed his lips were blue. I leaned down and tried to listen for a heartbeat and there was nothing.