Reminisce Extra – September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 * REMINISCE.COM 27

PICTURELUX/THE HOLLYWOOD ARCHIVE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Small Screen,

Big Dream

by

Lynne Elston • Windom, MN

hen I was growing up in

Southern California, I’d watch

Emergency! every Saturday night.

I loved that show. And I knew

that one day I wanted to be

a paramedic.

But in the 10 th grade my guidance counselor

made it very clear that I needed to squash that

dream. First, I was a girl—and fire departments

did not hire girls, the counselor said. Second,

even if they did take girls, I was 5 -foot- 2 and

too short to be a paramedic.

I was devastated. I graduated from high

school in 1980 and went to college to study

business. Which I hated.

Fast-forward 35 years. I’d been a stay-at-home

mother since our first child was born in 1986.

I was reading an article in our local newspaper

that said the community was looking for

applicants for the ambulance service. I decided

to go for it.

Even at 52 years of age I was accepted. I was

certified as an EMT and went on to graduate

from paramedic school. Earlier this year,

I started my first job as a paramedic.

I’m having the time of my life. It took

more than 40 years, but I’m finally working

my dream job, first imagined when I was a

teenager watching my favorite show.

I am proof that you should never give up

on your dreams. It’s never too late.

Her inspiration came from TV,

but the work was all her own.

TEACHING

MOMENT

Beverly Burkhardt

Webster, NY

MY FRIEND Bonnie Travis and I were playing golf together one

August day in 1982. We were having a lot of fun, until at the ninth

hole Bonnie suddenly dropped to the ground.

I ran to help her up, thinking she’d fainted. To my shock, she wasn’t

breathing. I immediately started CPR and shouted for someone to

call an ambulance.

Within about 20 seconds, Bonnie started breathing on her own.

I had saved her life!

I received an American Red Cross certificate of merit signed by

President Ronald Reagan for what I did that day. But credit also goes

to the first-aid instructor who taught me CPR at a Lady Elks meeting

two months earlier: Bonnie Travis.

EMERGENCY! PARAMEDICS

Kevin Tighe and Randolph Mantooth

were Lynne’s heroes as a teenager.

W