Rettke: Thank you to our first responders and their families

Not many people can say they rode to elementary school crammed with your siblings in the back of a police car. We sat shoved between two violins, a tuba, three backpacks and lunch boxes with a cage separating us from our father and doors that didn’t open from the inside.

Our friends were jealous and never stopped asking my dad to turn on his sirens or flash his lights.

One of the great joys of being a child is that everything feels like a novelty. We were oblivious to optics and the somewhat bizarre nature of our school day commute.

The bigger picture often is lost on young minds because they’re better at living in the moment. I wasn’t thinking of anything other than we got to see “Dad in work mode.” Seeing him open the doors from the outside to free us felt like a grand escort rather than what probably was the hassle of juggling life and work, driving your kids to school in your take-home patrol car.

It’s those little moments that stick out to me as I reflect on what it felt like to grow up with a police officer for a dad.

Today’s edition of the Daily Chronicle is meant to give glimpses into these jobs and humanize the people in the uniforms, wearing the oxygen tank and behind the surgical mask – show you what life is like on the front line as a police officer, firefighter paramedic, ER doctor or nurse. Give voice to those who help us in our moments of need.

Many jobs require overnight hours, shift changes, weekend or holiday work. But not all include “run to the potential life-threatening emergency” in the job description.

Some sources we interviewed for these stories said it’s been a heavy time to be a first responder here in DeKalb County.

I’d never been to a law enforcement officer’s funeral until April 4. DeKalb County Sheriff’s Deputy Christina Musil’s funeral assembled more law enforcement officers in one space than I have ever seen in my life. There were hundreds of first responders from multiple states.

[ Hundreds of mourners say goodbye to DeKalb County Sheriff’s Deputy Christina Musil ]

The public showing was moving to watch and stark in its reality check.

I don’t think it occurred to me as a child the possibility that my father could go to work one day and not come home. That realization grew as I did, however, and I learned the world isn’t always as shiny as it appears. I think most children probably view their parents as invincible. My mother and father went to admirable lengths to leave his work at the front door. It’s a burden felt by families of first responders, who often share the stressors of life in these industries.

These often thankless jobs bring first responders into contact with people in their worst moments, be it pain, crisis or grief. First responders are held to a higher standard than many other professionals. That makes sense in many ways. It is, after all, often life or death.

Much of the work of a first responder is what we don’t see, however: investigating, training, juggling multiple patients, being ready to jump in at a moment’s notice. Cutting family time short, answering calls on vacation, waking up and going out at 3 a.m., working holidays or nights or weekends, missing birthdays or school plays. It’s not being able to unplug fully or turn off your phone or take a day off, sacrificing time with your spouse or partner, not always being there for your child’s bedtime routine or to take them to school in the morning.

It’s being present when you can, knowing you’re helping as many as possible along the way.

So today, I hope you’ll join me as I say “Thank you” to our first responders, whose work does not go unnoticed.

• Kelsey Rettke is the editor of the Daily Chronicle.