What is our value of life?

This weekend was a rough weekend in the aspect of my EMT basis. I became an EMT-Basic and a firewoman about 2 years ago, when I joined our communities volunteer fire department. This can be a very demanding post, because you are always on call and you are a volunteer with your time, gas, etc... I enjoy it, but it is also very frustrating.

This weekend we had the death of a 25 year old male at 1:30 in the morning. It was pouring down raining and we arrived to a truck slammed into 2 trees. A young male was in the truck unconcious and did not have his seatbelt on. We got him out of the truck and started CPR. We all knew that he was probaly gone, but we must continue CPR until the EMS arrives and still continue until they say different. The unfortunate part was that the young man was extremely inebriated and no seatbelt. This was the loss of a valuable life that could have been prevented. The unfortunate part also was that he had just left a party that was about a 1/2 mile away.

That next morning at 3:00 am we had a man in his early thirties commit suicide and his wife found him. It hit very close to home because he was in the law enforcement area and my husband is a Sheriff's deputy. It was extremly unexpected.

That afternoon at 1:30 pm we had another suicide. This was a 71 year old male. He had been suffering from cancer and lived alone and basically decided to give up. Very sad.

We had another suicide in the community last week also. This gentleman had recently lost his wife to cancer and he himself had cancer. He was an upstanding member of the community.

These are all hard cases to deal with. As an EMT you learn to focus and not take it personally, but when you get home and think about it, it is hard not to take it personally. Why do we take our lives? Do we not realize how much pain and loss there is when one takes their life and leaves their family with nothing. A lot of people do not realize that when one committs suicide it voids there life insurance policy.

I have been in the position where I did not want to continue, but I am so glad that I did not take my life because I would not be here today. I would not have met my husband or have 4 wonderful step children in my life or be able to help people out with their different situations. I get to play with my chickens, collect eggs, take care of my horses and so much more. I get to see the sunrise and set, the storms pass through and make the drought brown grass into a deep rich green.

There is so much out there and I just want to reach out to people and say hang in there. We never know how soon God may call us to him, but we do not need to shorten our life. Live it and love it. No matter how bad it is or how bad it feels there is a way around it.

I feel like I can go on and on and on, but I will stop for now. My question to you is "How much is your life worth?"