Worksop mum-of-two writes touching Facebook tribute to her firefighter husband

In her heartwarming post Laurie Lamb tells how husband Patrick - a retained firefighter at Worksop Fire Station - ‘gives up so much to serve us’.

She writes how Patrick, 32, - who is on-call for a minimum of 84 hours a week - is called out to tackle blazes during precious family time ‘because he loves it’.

Laurie, whose husband Patrick, 34, works as a warehouseman when he’s not putting out fires wrote: “Tonight we decided that I would take our 3 year old daughter to bed & my husband would feed our 5 month old son in hope that by 9pm we could sit down & eat our M&S dine on us Valentines special.

“As I was reading our daughter her second book the sound goes...the alerter...BEEP...BEEP...BEEP...”

“Yep, you guessed it...he’s been called out right in the middle of bed time.”

Proud wife Laurie then goes on to tell how her husband then ‘runs upstairs’ with her son in his arms – ‘bursting’ through her daughter’s bedroom and handing him over before rushing out to tackle an ongoing blaze and ‘serve our community’.

She wrote: “My daughter then asks ‘has Daddy got to go & save the people instead of putting Henry to bed?’

“I now have two very awake children, tea in the oven that is burning & a worried wife but this is what he signed up to & he loves it.

“My husband loves helping our community in whatever way he can. I can hand on heart say he gives up so much to serve us.”

Speaking to the Worksop Guardian Laurie said she was inspired to write the moving post - which has been shared nearly 2,000 times - to give an insight into the life of a retained firefighter.

She said: “I’m immensely proud of him and his colleagues but it can be difficult for their families.

“I’ve had a lot of messages from families of retained firefighters saying it’s a true insight and saying ‘this happens to me all the time’.

“Now it’s out there it’s made a lot of people say ‘yes, that’s how it happens in our house too’.

Patrick has been a retained firefighter for nearly three years however Laurie admits she worries every time he goes out on a job.

She said: “I worry about whether he’ll be ok and how it will affect him when he comes home.

“But Patrick loves it - it’s all he ever wanted to do.

“And that’s what makes it so much easier for me to support him.”

Laurie said her three-year-old daughter Ava was equally as proud of her dad - often saying ‘I want to be a firefighter when I’m older’.

However both kids often remained blissfully asleep when Patrick and she were awoken by the fire service’s ‘deafening’ alarm bell.