Toe the Mark

John, a workshop participant tells us this story:

"I was working on the summer BLM fire crew with others in my home town. There was a flood in our area and a ranch hand got swept away. Well, we were sent out to help search for this poor guy. My brother, who also worked on the crew, is the one who ended up finding him.

After this incident management sent in a person who was to help with our feelings. Needless to say none of us felt traumatized enough to warrant the endless counselling we were receiving. It was nice of them to try and help us but we really did not need it.

The lady doing the counselling kept going on and on and kept trying to get us to get in touch with our feelings. We understood her concern but tried communicating most of the day that we were sorry it happened but we were not in great trauma. She kept trying to get us to reveal our deepest thoughts and it was getting to the point where we could not take any more.

After asking if anyone wanted to share a traumatizing event in their life, one of the guys said he would. In a most solemn tone he went on to tell how he was driving down a country road coming back from a fire patrol. He heard a siren and an ambulance came zooming by. Right about the time it blared by, he said he saw something wrapped in gauze fall out the back. The ambulance did not stop so he pulled over to investigate. He got out, went over to the gauze and slowly opened it.

With anxiety and nervousness in his voice he said he opened the gauze and could not believe what he saw. There was a bloody toe inside the gauze!

The counsellor, with a concerned look, in her most grave voice, then asked,'what did you do?'

My friend paused, gave a look of unease, and said, 'I called a toe truck.'

To say there was laughter is an understatement. Needless to say that was the end of our counselling session. Granted it was not the most polite thing to do but it was much needed. It was in no disrespect to the man who had passed on. I believe somewhere he was laughing as well."