Most people don't start a full-time career in their 60s.
Lyle See isn't most people. At 80 years old, he’s been an EMT for decades alongside a career in human resources and working as a firefighter.
His first run was in 1962, shortly after he graduated from Olivet College, responding to the call of a woman with a heart issue. At that time, he didn’t have equipment on the ambulance to save her life in time.
“We had none of the technology,” See said.
That's changed over the intervening 58 years.
“I have [the ability] now to have certainly gotten her to the hospital,” he said. It's also become more in demand.
Before the pandemic, it wasn't unusual for See to work 60 hours a week as he and his colleagues responded to increasing numbers of calls. See jokes that while he’s working fewer hours during the COVID-19 pandemic, his wife, Judy, would “just as soon I wasn’t doing any of this."