With Appreciation And Gratitude

To the Editor:

Have you ever passed judgment on volunteer firemen? Have you ever made a cynical comment or poked fun at them behind their back? You know, “There’s a cat in the tree and every volunteer fireman in town shows up with their blue lights.” Almost every single person that I’ve talked to and said, “I have a whole new level of respect for volunteer firemen and will never make negative comments about them again” has responded with, “Yea — I’ve done that too.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never passed up on emptying all the money in my wallet in a fundraising fireman’s boot or to the guys in the truck driving around house to house asking for donations. The real issue that I have with myself is that I don’t think I truly appreciated them.

Based on my prior judgment, I didn’t deserve to be saved by them, but they saved us anyway. The amazing thing is that the words “because it’s their job” would go so well with that statement, but it’s not true. Those men and women don’t get paid to do it. It’s not their “job.” They are husbands, wives, dads, moms, boyfriends, girlfriends or someone’s son or daughter.

So to every volunteer firefighter in Newtown (Botsford, Sandy Hook, Hawleyville, Dodgingtown, and Newtown Hook & Ladder) who responded to our house fire on December 8 at 2 in the morning while most everyone else was sleeping, including us, Thank You!

Those two words don’t come close to how much we appreciate everything it is that you do.

With love and gratitude,

Mike, Tammy and Daniel Gruber

(The Furry Grubers, too — Huey, Sienna, Sheba, and Ollie)

Little Brook Lane, Newtown                                       January 3, 2012