The Fireman's Wife: A Memoir - Hardcover

Farren, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1401301738 ISBN 13: 9781401301736

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2006

Synopsis

Susan Farren didn't plan on marrying a fireman. Having herself spent several years as a paramedic, she knew too well the dangers of the emergency profession. But as fate would have it, she met Dan -- and everything changed. Suddenly she was married to a man who had wanted to be a fireman ever since he was a child, and she found herself faced with the sacrifices and struggles that accompany this challenging career. Being a fireman's wife meant relocating her family, living without her husband for days at a time, and wondering every time she heard a siren if he would make it home safely. Ultimately, it also meant receiving the phone call every fireman's wife fears may come: the news that her husband had been in an accident.Susan speaks on behalf of thousands of firemen's wives nationwide -- the women who hold down the fort while their husbands are on the job. Their sacrifice is our gain, and for the first time, this book tells their story.

About this title

About the Author

Susan Farren is a former paramedic who transitioned out of a full-time career to be a stay-at-home wife and mother of five. An inspirational speaker, she lives with her family in Northern California.

Reviews

Farren shares with readers the pride, fear and resentment that make up her "abnormal" life next to her husband, Dan, engaged full-time in the Petaluma, Calif., fire department, 50 miles north of San Francisco. Unlike his Irish ancestors, on whom the dangerous, low-ladder jobs of policeman and fireman fell by default, Dan has craved the daily danger and heroism of fire fighting since childhood. Farren recounts Dan's initial acceptance as a recruit after a grueling series of trials and his eventual assimilation into a fiercely loyal brotherhood that would see him through the births of his five children and a devastating accident that nearly ended his active career. Farren ably takes readers through the stress of calls on her husband, ending either in a valiant "save" by the force or a depressing loss of life; she recalls the galvanizing effects of 9/11 in bringing the community of firefighters together. Moreover, she writes of her own career transition, from paramedic to full-time mom and "shivering ball of nerves" whose status as a fireman's wife did not exempt her from distractedly courting disaster or calling 911 when she heard a noise in the house. Although short on fire-fighting history and containing awkward shifts in POV to narrate the action, Farren's memoir proves an elucidating journey. (Mar.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1401301738
• ISBN 13: 9781401301736
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224