JON'S FRIEND DENNIS

Our son's longtime friend and hunting buddy Dennis was killed yesterday in this accident on the Baltimore Beltway in Maryland.

Jon called us late last night to let us know. Jon was at work as a firefighter/paramedic in Cumberland, MD, about 100 miles away, when he found out.

Dennis was at our house all the time when Jon was in high school. He and Jon went hunting every chance they got. They both joined the volunteer fire department the minute they turned 16. Jon went on to become a paramedic, and he and my husband (also a paramedic) often worked alongside Dennis at fire and accident scenes. Jon eventually became a professional firefighter/paramedic, while Dennis worked at miscellaneous jobs, like the one in which he was killed yesterday.

I hadn't thought about Dennis for months but the world still feels different without him in it. One person's death affects many lives.... think about all the people whose driving path had to be re-routed, or who were stuck on the closed highway, no doubt who had never heard of Dennis Sines but whose lives were nevertheless changed by the accident that caused his death.

We'll miss him.