Military chaplain on notifying families of Wainwright fire victims

Yes, it's a sacred moment. It's hard to describe what it's like. You enter into the pain that is experienced by the family and you just simply remain. You remain. You be attentive. There's something mutual that goes on in that interaction where we, in some sense, in a deeper sense, we both feel comforted despite the tragic circumstances. From joining command teams to be a part of that notification process, that very difficult notification process. From being in the hospital's bedside with the members, being in hospitals with the family members and sitting and listening to them. As you would expect, they're grieving and you experience a range of emotions. As chaplains we are called to help carry that burden with them and it's heavy they're trying to understand the circumstances they're trying to understand what their loved ones are going to what their lives are going to be like moving forward you know and we're there to listen. Well-meaning individuals say make sure you take care of yourself. I say you know I don't have to take care of myself. I've got a full team of chaplains that are taking care of me. We've got unit members that are taking care of me. and us chaplains. We've got leadership that are taking care of us. It's incredible the way that this community comes together to support each other through tragedy. This is what we're meant for, to support each other through tragedy. Tragedy is not a stranger to the CAF. And so, yeah, I don't need to take care of myself. We all take care of each other. Stick together, be there for each other. Be ready as duty calls. Grieve now. Because life don't go away, duty doesn't go away and we grieve now to prepare us for tomorrow.