speechless...

Sunday night ended with a trip to Evaluation Treatment Center of COH @ 10:30pm. Through out the day I began to have breathing problems and by 10:30pm I wasn't sure if I could make it through the night without some oxygen to help me. I was examined by the on-call doctor and put in a Observation Room of the hospital and placed on oxygen. Since MY doctor had to prescribe the "at home" oxygen, we had to wait until the AM in order to get the RX. Needless to say the night was long and I did feel tremendous relief having the oxygen. Well around 8am the "In-patient" case manager came in letting us know that we would be seen shortly by 2 different doctors. Jayne asked how long will we be waiting? answer, the meeting starts at 10am, okay.

 10am, one Dr. came by and I gave him the 411 on my situation and he listened intently. He fully understood and said that the second Dr. would be in a bit later, Jayne asked again, how long will we be waiting? She was also texting on her phone alot and I would ask who was I talking to? and she would give me some reasonable explanation and I really didn't think much about it. 

11:15am in walks the 2nd Dr. and we pretty much went over the same things and came to the same conclusion. I need oxygen at home. Jayne asks, How long before we can get discharged? answer, we are writing the paperwork now.  Okay. She asked, can we be out of here by noon? answer, we are working on it. She goes back to texting. She starts putting on my shoes and she helps me into the wheelchair and positions me directly in front of the door. The paperwork came, she signed for me. The transportation attendant came and we are out the door. Jayne says she is going ahead to get the car and out we went.

1:15pm, we are in the car and she says that my immediate boss and the president of the company were in town and that they wanted to come by the house and see me. I told her ok, the sooner the better. She calls them and says 2pm. She tells me that when we get home she will help me get into some clean clothes, fluff my "bed head" and get the house picked up. okay. 

2pm, the doorbell rings, Jayne gets the door and in walks, Tim Henderson, my boss, Paul Curtis, the president followed by 3 Henderson, Neveda Fire Chiefs in their Class A, dress uniforms, 4 L.N.Curtis sales men from my office and their sales manager (my old boss) and the retired division chief from Henderson FD. I just can't believe my eyes!

My longtime customer and friend, Bill Carey, a division chief steps forward with a plaque and says "Brent, in 50+ years of the Henderson Fire Dept. they have never had an Honorary Member of the department and we felt that you should be the first. He presented me with a plaque and my official badge and stated that I was a full fledged member of the department and the only thing I didn't have to do was, Pay Union Dues. Then the Deputy Chief, Brad Fuller had some very kind words about the man that I was and the incredible job I had done while serving their department, needless to say I was very humbled. A few more shared their compliments and stated that I was so deserving of this recognition which included a longtime friend & a retired Division Chief, Bruce Giles, who had traveled here from Idaho in order to be a part of this presentation. 

As I tried to keep my emotions in check, I said "there hasn't been very may times in my life that I have been speechless, but this was one of them." What an honor! and the best was that all of my boys and Jayne were here with me. 

Apparently, this had been in the works for the past 2 weeks. The plan was to do the presentation at my office in L.A. at 11am that day, which would have also included my staff. All of these guys were already in LA on Sunday night and Jayne pretty much worked a miracle by making sure that it happened. Now it all made sense why Jayne was being so persistent in getting me the care I needed and the getting me back home to receive one of the most unexpected honors of my life. 

My middle son, Kent, who works for L.N.Curtis as a Service Tech, came up to me and is insisting that he install a siren and fire chief light bar on my company car. He's such the comedian!

24 hours have passed...

 Still speechless!