Have You Hugged Your Emergency Service Communicator Today?

This is National Communicators Week, a week set aside to honour a profession more commonly known as 911 Operator. These are the first-first responders to almost all emergencies. These folks make sense out of mayhem, calm the victims and witnesses, and try to keep order in what is usually a chaotic situation.

They are the calm voice you get when you are having a crisis, and they are the ones who get you the help you need.

This is a predominately female occupation, and I know why.

About 17 years ago next month, My Darling Bride and I were enjoying a fairly quiet Saturday evening as we did then, she was dispatching taxi's and I was driving one. She was very pregnant with soon to be Thing 2, and I was returning from an out of town trip.

The fairly quiet radio chatter was broken with this matter - of - fact message from M.D.B. "Attention all cars! Car 24 has just been stolen from downtown! If you see car 24, let me know. Otherwise, don't call me, I'm on the phone with the Police."

This call for radio quiet of course, brought the the radio to life. Drivers wanting to know how, or where. A few cars reported spotting the missing car, but had passengers and couldn't follow. Of course, you can guess what happens next...who spots the stolen car and gives chase?

Moi.

I see a taxi coming towards me very quickly at the edge of the city and sure enough, its Car 24. I spin that old wagon around and tromp on the gas. I report to M.D.B. that I am following and where I am, and she relays this to the Police Dispatcher on the other end of her phone. I report everything regarding our speed, location and direction of travel, and I get her calm voice at the other end calling me "Roger" (radio joke)

At one point we are all stopped at a light, and out from what appears to be a second involved car steps a guy with a baseball bat. The stolen cab reverses, and would have rammed me if I hadn't done the same.

All this gets relayed to M.D.B. and the Police.

After a bit of a chase in the country, the thief bails, we get the car back, and it turns out Bat Boy was on our side. The police arrest the ne'er do well a short time later, at the same coffee shop he stole the car from.

The next day, M.D.B. stops for a coffee on her way to work, and runs into one of the Officers involved the night before, a friend of ours. He says to her, "Weren't you dispatching the stolen cab last night?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Wasn't your husband driving the cab chasing?"

"Yes," she replied.

"And you're still pregnant? You should work for us!"

And that, is how M.D.B. was inspired to be an Emergency Services Communicator.

The rest, they say, is legend.

DJW

This is not a picture of My Darling Bride at work.