Brenda Pridgen dabbed away another tear as she composed herself to meet President Barack Obama, an encounter that elicited a rush of conflicting emotions for the widow of Baltimore firefighter James E. Bethea. "My husband would have loved this," Pridgen said of Sunday's memorial service at Mount St. Mary's University for 87 firefighters — including Bethea and Baltimore County firefighter Robert W. Fogle III — who died on the job.
"He was all about the fire service. He lived the fire service, so this would have been a momentous day for him," Pridgen said. At the same time, the ceremony — in which bagpipes wailed and bells tolled — was a reminder of the day last year on which she learned that her husband had died of smoke inhalation after falling through the floor of a vacant rowhouse. "At the end of the day, everybody doesn't come home," said Pridgen, who was seated near Fogle's widow, Carol, in the university's Knott Arena. "Sometimes things happen and we lose people — really good people, remarkable people, wonderful people, family people, people who are loved."
Obama asked the nation to renew its commitment to preventing fires and making sure to supply firefighters with "equipment and the support that they need to get the job done and to come home safe. That's what we owe every one of you." bama spoke for 12 minutes, honoring the members of the "selfless profession" and their families. "You remember them as moms and dads, siblings and spouses, friends and neighbors," the president said. "Today we salute them and remember them as the heroes that they were."