I was born and raised in a small town in the shadows of the Great Smokey Mountains. At that time not many people expected to have a future much better than a life working in factories or cotton mills. At 12 years old I was working in a gas station and the cotton mills at 16. Thankfully the Community College gave me a way out. My first job in Emergency Services was as a 911 Dispatcher. There I had a front row seat to see what EMS was and for me it became my calling. I went back to school. First I trained as a EMT-Basic, then followed up the ladder to EMT-Paramedic. Second only to God and my family it became part of me. Cancer took it away!