Amy McDonnell Maguire
First Responder Spouse, and Lifelong Radnor Township, 6th Ward Resident
As the wife of a firefighter, I know what my kids and I experience when my husband goes out the door to a call. There’s a series of questions that get asked that help us decide what our next move is as a family: are we going to go about “business-as-usual” until he lets us know that he’s clear or are we going to pause from what we’re doing that day to wait until we know he’s ok?
There’s a big difference in those two options, and since we don’t get any advanced warning this has become the only way for us to prepare for how we should respond while he is responding. We could be at home doing nothing, we could be on our way to do something that the kids have been waiting all week to do, we could be just about to sit down to dinner, we could be about to leave to go on vacation when he’s called to go…we just never know and there is nothing else we can do, so we’ve learned to control this one thing that we can control: how we respond. That’s our key to survival.
Over the past several years, I’ve been grateful and relieved to see improvements in the ways that my husband is able to prepare, train, and respond to emergencies. Most notably, following the storm on August 13, 2018 when flood-prone Radnor Township was hit by a storm that put cars, homes, properties, residents and first responders (including my husband) at risk, Radnor Township Commissioner Jake Abel chose how he was going to respond: unapologetically.
During his first term as a township commissioner for Ward 6, Jake Abel has fought for the first responders who show up for us when we need them. He’s been an outspoken supporter and steadfast advocate for their safety and he has prioritized solutions to some of the issue that my kids and I worry about when we’re evaluating our loved one’s situation, and our next move. From Radnor’s incredible water rescue vehicle (which also appeared on ABC’s Nightly News helping to save people after our most recent storm that caused unprecedented flooding across the region, well beyond our township’s borders), to advanced training, to the suits that help keep our first responders protected from whatever could be rushing through those waist-high waters – Jake Abel has led on all these initiatives.
Any politician who pretends that Jake has not consistently acted in the best interest and safety of first responders is taking risks with my husband’s safety that shock and scare me. The safety of our first responders, of my first responder, is not a partisan issue or some political bargaining chip that should be used misleadingly on a mailer. I hope Avery Rome starts to realize that Radnor Township does not need more nonsense and division, and we absolutely do not need elected officials who want to tell half-truths to score political points, especially on the backs of the ones working (volunteering) their hardest and giving up their time to truly protect us, and her.
Avery Rome needs to do better.
Amy McDonnell Maguire