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Losing a parent is extremely tough, especially when the child is so young. It can be hard to explain the to the child what has happened to their parent, and help them adjust to life without such an important person around everyday.
Things get even more gut wrenching around holidays and birthdays. These times are typically spent with family, so when a major family member is missing, it can be even harder to get through.
7-year-old Evan lost his mother, Kellie, in 2014. Every year since her passing, Evan and his father write cards to Kellie and tie them to a balloon. They then let the balloon go up into the sky, so Kellie can receive her cards in “heaven”. It’s a beautiful and heartwarming tradition, one that Evan looks forward to.
This past Mother’s Day, Evan and his dad Jess performed the their usual act of writing a card and attaching it to a balloon for Kellie. Unfortunately, this time, the balloon got stuck and became tangled in a tree. Concerned that the letter wouldn’t make it to Evan’s mom, Jess contacted the West Metro Fire Rescue to see if they could help them retrieve Kellie’s gift.
Thankfully, the Fire Rescue team responded to the family’s plea right away,
Chief Steve Aseltine told Jess that they would “absolutely” help Jess and Evan. "We sent a tower ladder apparatus, which has four personnel. An opportunity to take their bad situation and make it better, we would jump on it. The firefighters, they were ecstatic to go and help." he said.
Not only did the kindhearted fire team get the balloon out of the tree, but the surprised little Evan with it when he came home from school! The firefighters even spent some quality time with the little boy.
"The firemen went out of their way to make him feel very special. They let him in the truck and hung out with him afterward and that was great." Evan’s dad Jess said.
It is so wonderful to see a team of firefighters doing something so kind and special for a little boy. We’re sure life can get hard for Evan and Jess without Kellie around, and it must have made Evan’s day to have a bunch of brave firefighters hanging out with him. The family’s tradition is so sentimental and wonderful, it’s great to see that the fire team recognized how important it was to the family and helped out.
Jess and Evan are going to send Kellie’s Mother’s Day card up into the heavens again, this time in a “big field with no trees in sight”. That sounds like a good plan to us! At least Jess and Evan now know that they have a great team of firefighters nearby to help them if they ever need it.
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