To the Editor:
As the years go by, you get to my age and you look back on your life. You know you're toward the end of your life, definitely not the beginning.
My parents came from farming families and worked hard all their lives. My dad had a fourth grade and mom an eighth grade education. My dad died when I was 16 years old and I had dropped out of high school. I worked with horses and worked part time for a vet, Dr. Leroy Prushing.
Dr. Prushing was a man who was able to convince me to go back to school. He was on the Board of Education and got me info on the JVS the first year it opened. My parents had lost everything from the Depression and were so beaten down from that experience. Dr. Prushing did so much in helping me. I took health occupations at the JVS. That got me into EMS — I was part of the original life-support team that worked out of Memorial Hospital.
How would my life had worked out without Dr. Prushing's intervention? Looking back, there was another person not even knowing was instrumental in my life. I was working as an orderly at old Mercy Hospital and I'd be called down to ER when something bad would be coming in via squad. I got to see Rick Monahan and his partner at work. He is a decorated Vietnam medic who once saved a wounded soldier under fire — I believe three Bronze Stars were awarded. My point is sometimes, unknowing, you can have such an impact on a person's life. Later, when Rick left the LST, I was hired in November 1971 and spent 21 years in EMS as an EMT and then a paramedic. I'd like to think some kid saw me work on a victim on the roadside and I had that kind of effect on them.
Over the years I've dabbled in real estate and I'd like to think I've saved some old – some historic homes from being torn down. I've sold several to first-time homebuyers over a 40-year period.
I've tried to be of service in my life and tried to give back. I've always been thankful that I was part of the very early EMS systems in the county.
Ron Meharry,
Mount Vernon
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