Believe it or not, my icon sort of applies~

Tonight I went out for Chinese with raerae639 and the little one (recently turned four). Two things happened that I want to share. First, she mentioned that one of his books about medical people mentioned pharmacists, and she told him that's what Auntie [Candy] does. So the following exchange happened:

ME: What do pharmacists do, Jack?
JACK: ...they put out fires!

We laughed. Loudly.

The other thing...okay, Jack has a fascination with all things medical and emergency related. Doctors, firefighters, police officers, and most of all, paramedics. He is obsessed with ambulances and paramedics and the like. Although he did make friends with some cops once at the mall when they walked in and he said, "I'm a cop too!" and they gave him high-fives and talked to him for a few minutes :)

Well, we were at the restaurant at a booth with a window facing the front. An ambulance drove by. Jack was so excited! Well, turns out they were stopping to eat - we saw two men in uniforms at the buffet line. Jack begged to go over and say hi, but Rae said no. At first.

Then she asked me if it would be weird if she took Jack over and told them that they were her kid's hero and he just wanted to say hi. I said that if she put it like that, I don't see how it was weird - most people in their line of work would probably be very flattered. She thought for a minute, then said she'd be right back. They walked over, and I watched as they talked to the guys.

A minute later, one of them got up. With keys in his hands. And Rae comes over and asks me to toss her Jack's coat.

She told me later that they'd gone over, she'd said her piece...and one of them asked if Jack wanted to see the ambulance. He asked Jack his name, said his own name was Tim, shook Jack's hand, and took him out to show him and his mom the ambulance. Rae said Tim the Paramedic showed him all the stuff in the back, turned the siren light on, and even hooked him up to the heart monitor and printed off Jack's heartbeat and gave it to him.

(When I told my parents, they said, "I think Mr. Paramedic is someone's dad.")

Jack couldn't stop talking about it when he came back to the table, and he couldn't wait to show me the paper of his heartbeat. He was so excited! It was really an awesome thing. I told Rae she should send the story into the newspaper, or at least contact the company and let them know what an amazing employee they have.

So thank you, Tim the Paramedic. Thank you so much for taking a few minutes out of your day and your dinner to put that big of a smile on the face of a four-year-old boy who idolizes you. My hat is off to you, sir.

You are a true hero, in more ways than one.