In Keeping With Safety
My Mom Is My Hero

By Kelsee Pearl Haws

When I heard this issue of Arizona Boating & Watersports was about safety, I thought about my mother, a retired firefighter, EMT, and dispatcher for Rural/Metro Fire Department. She is my hero. And, this is why.

She has helped me through my life. Before I was born, when she was four years old, she worked in her family’s flower shop, called Ted Brookes Flowers in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

And, when she had time, she was active in St. John’s Ambulance, a first-aid training and service organization for children and adults.

When she was 12, she left the flower shop and started working with horses (she had two of her own). The stables where she worked had about 150 horses.

When my mom was 16, she also worked at the Calgary Stampede. There she ran a booth with the once-popular Smurfs, cartoon characters and action figures.

My mom then became an assistant manager of a 51-flavors ice cream shop and also went back to work at the flower shop.

After she finished high school, she moved to Arizona from Canada. Then, at 18, she managed a flower shop and went to college, where she got a degree in Fire Science and trained to be a firefighter.

While she was expecting me, she trained to be a 911 fire dispatcher and continued that work after I was born.

Although she is now retired, Mom spent 14 years with the fire department, helping others, saving lives, and teaching safety.

That’s why my mom is not only my hero, but she is others’ too.