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FIREMAN'S WIFE, THEx$10.89
 (19 reviews)
Best Price: $16.95 $10.89
Susan Farren didn+t plan on marrying a fireman. Having herself spent several years as a paramedic, she knew too well the dangers of the emergency profession. But as fate would have it, she met Dan-and everything changed.Suddenly she was married to a man who had wanted to be a fireman ever since he was a child, and she found herself faced with the sacrifices and struggles that accompany this challenging career. Being a fireman+s wife meant relocating her family, living without her husband for days at a time, and wondering every time she heard a siren if he would make it home safely. Ultimately, it also meant receiving the phone call every fireman+s wife fears may come: the news that her husband had been in an accident.Susan speaks on behalf of thousands of firemen+s wives nationwide-the women who hold down the fort while their husbands are on the job. Their sacrifice is our gain, and for the first time, this book tells their story.
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Customer Reviews
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The Fireman's Wife
By A1FLHRMIDQ8R39 on 2006-03-16
I am a fireman's wife and for the first time in 10 years, I understand that I am not alone with my feelings. This book allowed me to cry, laugh and nod my head as Susan explained the trials and tribulations of being a part of the firefighter family. Thank you to Susan for honoring our husbands for the important job they do and for their wives who sacrifice so much to enable our husbands to be there for our communities in their time of need. I recommend this easy-to-read, heartfelt memoir to all friends and families of safety personnel.-You don't have to feel alone.
Fabulous!
By A1ZT91ISYNNQFS on 2006-03-10
This is a fantastic book!! I fell in love with the fireman's wife and their relationship right from the start. It's a story of true love, devotion and strong family values from which all people can benefit.
This is one of the easiest books I've ever read and I can't wait for more from her. Tears streamed from my eyes both from sadness and wholehearted laughter.
Since 9-11, we are ever more aware of how much our firefighters and police officers do to serve us, selflessly. Dan's story is wonderful and pure and likely indicative of so many of our nation's civil servants. The unique perspective from which this story is told reflects the strong women and men who support them from behind the scenes. What a gift. I am so glad that she shared their wonderful story with the world! Truly, this is a must read:)
I'm "the fireman's kid" - this was my story too!
By A1T7SG2FWFADZ9 on 2006-04-16
Susan Farren wrote an amazing, detailed, funny, heartfelt description of a fireman's family. As the daughter of a fireman, I remember visits to the station, crawling on the engines and trucks,dad being gone on "OT", and how much he looked forward to his 4-days, so we could all spend time together. Seeing the life of a fireman's wife described so well makes me appreciate so much more what my own mom went through when I was little.
A Man Called Dan 
By A30TK6U7DNS82R on 2006-04-24
Friends in Petaluma, a small city about a hour's drive north of here, still talk about the hero fireman who's the eponymous victim in Susan Farren's THE FIREMAN'S WIFE, and how he managed to rehabilitate himself with the help of many trained professionals and pulled himself out of a near death experience. Well, he didn't do it alone, and as we find out in Susan Farren's book, he did it with the knowledge that she would be in his corner from now to forever. They have five adorable kids, and it isn't always easy being Susan Farren, but she sort of knew what she was getting into and it doesn't seem as though she had any regrets.
Having him underfoot while he healed up from his njuries would try the patience of a saint, and though she is no plaster angel, she shows remarkable forebearance. There was one dramatic episode that will haunt her all the days of her life, and she takes us through this agony step by step, when, one day, she was in a restaurant with three of the kids, and she got into the car leaving the baby on the sidewalk, and she drove away till one of the older kids asked, "Where's the baby?" When she drove back cop cars with flashing lights were already swarming around the apparently abandoned infant. It was excruciating, and they made her feel like an abusive, uncaring welfare mother. As a former paramedic, Susan knows emergency medicine, and she knows how her case must have seemed from the outside. It was upsetting indeed, but at the end of a long day she did not go to jail, and they returned her baby to her arms, but Don did find out and it created a strain between them.
However, the Farrens' real "baptism of fire" came on a Petaluma November, and when it was over, seven lives were changed forever. You'll weep buckets trying to imagine what it would have been like to have a husband incapacitated in the line of duty, a man called Dan. not for nothing does she quote the famous "Fireman's Prayer," which ends so sadly:
And if according to Your will
I have to lose my life
Please bless with Your protecting hand
My family, children, and my wife.
A Must read for anyone related to anyone in Emergency service
By AVLTDM0KI8T6F on 2006-03-21
This book gave me a hint into the 'families behind the people on the front line.' Farren has an amazing ability to put her raw and basic fears into words that ring true for anyone who has ever known a firefighter! Or ever wanted to know what the life is really like. I am a Flight Attendant and occassionally our aircraft must prepare for an emergency landing. When that happens we depend on the fire trucks and the personnel to be there for us - to help 'save us'. THE FIREMAN'S WIFE puts feelings and emotions to those who stand behind, those who 'save'.
- Even if your not the wife of a firefighter you'll find yourself in this book.
By A1FMRYJ1QK472X on 2006-03-24
Although I do not have family members in the fire or police service this book moved me to tears. While Downtown today a fire truck roared by me on a way to a call. I must tell you for the first time I stopped and paused to think about the fire fighters on that truck, and their loved ones at home. Both men and women will find this story interesting, humorous, and inspiring. An easy quick read.
Portland, Oregon
- Execellent
By AS2RVRMDTX537 on 2006-03-28
What an exceptional book. The story gives the reader a real look into the lives of a fireman, his wife and family, and the ups and downs of a relationship involving such an honorable and consuming career. Farren shares her most intimate thoughts and concers for her husband and family in this heartfelt story.
- I wept--I am a Fireman's Wife
By A2EA2EMFZ1DIUF on 2006-03-29
Susan, thank you for so beautifully and succinctly describing our lives....Especially for acknowledging your faith when there is no explanation. I am proud to call this crazy, exhausting, wonderful life my own. My husband just returned to full duties after being out on injury for 16 months. This engaging and heartwarming book is a quick read.
- I laughed, I cried .....
By ACDPL07DRFB7R on 2006-04-01
This book was outstanding and kept my interest ( No easy task ). The story is so real and so applicable to many people. The firemen , their wifes, EMS, police, hospital personnel and people who just want to know what it is like to be a fireman's wife. Susan is a wonderful writer with a sense of humor and shows that she discerns a deeper purpose in one's everyday job: her's as a fireman's wife and mother as well as her husband as a fireman putting his life on the line everyday.
I can't wait for the next book. I hope she is writing one.
- A great addition to emergency services literature.
By A36O4TF5LYON86 on 2006-04-14
As a former paramedic, I've read just about every memoir written by people involved in emergency services. Some obviously aren't written with much honesty so it's really refreshing when an author like Susan Farren tells her story with so much candor and respect for both her subject and her audience. I highly recommend this book. The life she describes with her firefighter/paramedic husband Dan and their children is at once accessible and at the same time extraordinary. Her description of her husband's injury at a fire and his recovery and the associated challenges faced by the family is a testament to their courage and devotion to their "calling." I'm looking forward to her next book.
- Loved this book!!!!
By A38A72X673SEAY on 2006-04-15
This truly could not have been a more accurate description of what is like to be a fireman's wife. I nodded in agreement at every page...felt her laughter and tears. I found myself wanting to hand out copies of it to my friends and family as a must read synopsis of what our life is like so I don't have to keep trying to explain it! With five kids, I don't know how she found the time to write it, but what a wonderful book. Highly recommend it...I couldn't put it down and read it one night.
- Highly Recommended!
By A12SXZ63DQHE6I on 2006-07-01
After reading about the process to become a firefighter, the smells and feels of the firehouse, what it's like to have 5 children while your husband is at work, and what it feels like when that dreaded phone call finally comes, I feel as though I was seeing life through the eyes of Sue Farren. It has a wonderful balance of sentimentality and sarcasm, which keeps the readers on their toes. With a solid foundation in her faith, and a heart that has gradually grown accustomed to a life of weird schedules and an adopted family of firefighters, Sue Farren is the perfect woman to have written a memoir that represents anyone who's ever had a family member in the fire service. Great job!
-Jill Thornton, author of "Running Through Deserts"
- First at bat....homerun!
By A3RZ8QH54T1AKX on 2006-07-21
It doesn't matter whether or not you're a fireman or a firefighter's spouse, you will get a kick out of this book. By the time you're half way through The Fireman's Wife, you'll be in love with this family. Susan's writing is personable and informative about the pride and pitfalls of being in fire service. Applicable to anybody with a loved one serving the public and risking their life for the rest of us (fire, police, military, etc.). Hopefully we'll see more from this inspired author. Bravo
- Easy to relate to.
By A3IHY6XU4FU8BX on 2007-01-20
A funny, insightfull, and often scary look into the life of a firefighters wife.
- A Must For Every Firefighter's Wife!
By AIW1ZA4B6N1V7 on 2007-12-07
This book was given to me by my firefighter fiancee soon after he proposed. What a Godsend! I consider this my "bible". Susan summed up the feelings we as wives have about our firemen husbands and does it in a funny, thoughtful and wonderful way. I recommend this be required literature for every fireman to hand out when they decide to propose!! LOL. Thanks Susan for sharing our side of the story!
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