A Beautiful Tribute to Honor our Local Fire Chief

Thursday was a very sad day as I attended the funeral of Rich's Fire Chief, Tom Dickensheets. (He also happens to be family as he is my father-in-law's cousin.) Tom passed away early Sunday morning at the young age of 55 from an apparent heart attack. He had served as Fire Chief for 22 years and, being in the fire service for nearly 3 decades, it was the passion of his life.

As I walked up to the local Catholic church to attend the funeral, the street was lined with fire trucks from all over the county. There must have been nearly a hundred fire service, local and county police and EMS waiting outside on what turned out to be a beautiful day for early March.

The funeral service started and I was without a tissue! I kept telling myself not to look at family and I'd be okay. Luckily, the actual service wasn't too emotional, but what happened afterwards would have made just about anyone shed a tear.

I followed with family and friends as the local firemen, dressed in uniform and wearing white gloves, carried their Chief out of the church in the casket. They walked him up to vintage 1924 fire engine that had sat in the fire station for years in non-working condition until this last week. The firemen made sure to have it fixed so it could be used as the hearse for their Fire Chief.

The casket was gently laid in the old fire engine, then the top 3 officers, dressed in white uniform tops and black slacks, took their positions in the fire truck. The Lt. drove as the Captain road in the passenger seat and standing on the back of the fire truck was the Assistant Fire Chief with one white-gloved hand placed on the casket for the entire ride to the cemetery.

The old fire truck left the parking lot of the church to start the funeral procession, as Tom's close family followed. Every fire service vehicle from the the local fire station followed the family, then the rest of the family and friends with the procession ending with nearly another dozen fire engines from neighboring fire departments.

The local and county police had left early to block off the route to the cemetery. I had no clue what that route was going to be until I realized they turned the opposite direction than where the cemetery was. The procession went slowly through town. People were standing outside their workplaces, homes and even their cars watching the procession and paying their respects.

As we continued along, we turned a corner to pass in front of the fire station. Before we even arrived, we could hear the old fire bell ringing, "Bong....Bong....Bong....Bong...." as the funeral procession passed. Rich's old fire department had sent a half dozen men to stay at our local fire station in case of a fire during the funeral. They were all positioned outside with the old bell and a set of fire gear sitting next to it, symbolizing the loss of a fireman.

We passed by the fire station and turned another corner. More people were standing outside paying their respects and then we stopped just short of the cemetery. The old fire truck carrying the casket had stopped as the rest of the fire department parked the fire service vehicles and got out to walk the rest of the way behind their Chief.

As the procession started back up again, we could hear a bagpipe playing. The bagpiper was standing amongst the graves a good distance away from Tom's final resting place. We went a little further and saw two aerials (ladder trucks) positioned with their ladders extended toward one another with an American flag hanging between them. The funeral procession passed under that flag to enter the cemetery.

We all stopped and the firemen carried their Fire Chief for the last time to the grave site. We stood around and listened to the Priest say a few last words and prayers. What happened after the Priest had finished was the hardest part of the whole funeral.

There was a brief silence then, all of a sudden, all the fire pagers of the local fire department went off. There was a bit of static following the tone, then the dispatcher came on...."Attention Croswell firemen. Attention Croswell fireman. This is the final call for Fire Chief Tom Dickensheets." And the dispatchers voice started to waver as she finished, saying "Sanilac Central clear. 12:53."

Weeping followed as the bagpipes started up again playing "Amazing Grace" and the casket was lowered into the ground. When most everyone had left except for family, they stood around to say a few final words and sing a song.

Tom was a wonderful man who his whole family loved and everyone else greatly respected. He was a local hero that will never be forgotten.

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Rich and I came home to relax that afternoon and talked about the days' events. It came up that Rich's pager would actually play back the final call if we wanted to hear it, but it would be deleted if he shut it off. For the sake of keeping the memory of Tom's final call, we recorded it with the video camera and just so it will never be lost, I wanted to post it here:

**The pictures above are not mine....actually if you look close enough you can see me in one of them! These pictures were borrowed from the local newspaper, The Times Herald, and they were taken by MELISSA WAWZYSKO.