Christmas is a time to spend with family and friends. However, some of our neighbors in Southeast Texas have to work through the holidays in their jobs serving the public.

Some first responders and emergency room personnel shared their thoughts on how they adjust and still enjoy the holiday season with their loved ones.

 

Acadian Ambulance

Robert Kirkley, an EMT-paramedic with Acadian Ambulance in Groves, is a veteran of working on holidays. He’s been an EMT for 13 years and learned to make adjustments.

The usual routine for ambulances is that things will slow down for Christmas Eve by 6 p.m. and pick up again on Christmas day.

“We had Christmas yesterday (on Thursday),” he said. “We work on a rotation and we do what we’ve got to do. Certain jobs are like this.”

Working on holidays depends on the rotation too.

Kirkley said he likes his schedule because he gets every other weekend off for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On the flip side, he also has to work those days for weekends when scheduled.

Also, they types of calls they respond to on holidays doesn’t change much.

“We may see more auto accidents. That kind doesn’t change. We see a slight uptick in suicides for Christmas,” he said.

He added that his wife is more than understanding about working holidays because she’s an ER nurse at Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas- Beaumont Campus.

“She’s very well verse,” he said.

Overall, Kirkley said he loves his job because it constantly changes.

“You never know where you’ll end up. We may get 13 calls per day or 20. It’s something different instead of doing the same thing everyday,” he said.

 

Christus St. Mary Hospital ER in Port Arthur

Registered Nurses Amy Wilson, Joseph Lavergne and Jennifer Laird also take working weekends all in stride and as part of the territory.

Laird said working a holidays can sometimes be joyful by helping patients.

They celebrate Christmastime away from work the day or after the holiday.

Wilson added they work around it and everything works out.

“We’ve been nurses long enough our families understand,” Laird said. “Our family has a sense of pride of us serving our community. They can say we’re ‘one of our own’ making sacrifices.”

Lavergne said families are very understanding.

“We work Christmases all of the time. I’m off on New Year’s. I’ll work more holidays because I don’t have children,” he said.

The ER also had their departmental Christmas party where they brought food and exchanged gifts. They got some nifty jackets from the hospital as gifts too.

“This is our second family,” Lavergne said.

Laird said her family is small and her children live locally so they can spend time together.

“The patients here, however, are unfortunately ill and they’re very appreciative we’re here. Their families are appreciative too we’re on guard to help their loved ones. It helps the shift go by quickly,” she said.

 

Nederland Police Department

Sgt. David Odom said holidays are sometimes peaceful or sometimes he wonders what is going through people’s minds following a call to an incident.

He’s been a police officer for 22 years and he said he knew ahead of time working holidays is a way of life in the profession.

“When I first worked a holiday, I wondered how people could act like this,” he said. “I came from the military to this job and I was used to it by then.”

Odom got the idea to become a police officer from his brother who retired from the Port Arthur Police Department.

The NPD adopted the DuPont schedule three years ago in which they rotate through three years with four days on and three days off, and three days on and three days off. Days and nights are rotated as well. The last two weeks of the year the patrol department can’t take vacations.

Odom said it depends on how the schedule falls if he will work a holiday or not.

This schedule, though, allows him some time to visit family on the holidays.

“In Nederland, we have the luxury of if we’re not busy we can go to our houses for a little while to celebrate. Especially for officers who have little kids,” he said. “Working holidays is just another day for us. The only bad thing about this job is you become callous to those things, but I spend it here with my other family,” Odom said.

 

Groves Fire Department

Capt. Darin Monceaux and Firefighters Haden Grove and Lance Billeaud won’t be working the holidays this year with the exception of Grove because he is covering for someone. However, they have worked their shares of holidays in the past.

The way the GFD shift works is firefighters work every third day. The department consists of some professionals and some volunteers.

“It’s not too bad,” Billeaud said. “I’m away from family, but then again I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years. It’s not a bid deal.”

Monceaux added firefighters make sacrifices doing the job.

Billeaud said he is used to all of this because his father worked shift work at a refinery.

“We were all volunteers before we were in a paid position. We knew the schedule,” he said. “We miss some birthdays, anniversaries.”

Four men are scheduled per shift along with the volunteers. On Thursday, they were one man short because he was on military leave.

Busyness on holidays also varies.

Billeaud said some of his family members are nurses and it’s sometimes tough to get everyone together on holidays.

“The only bad thing about working holidays is it’s hard to find something to eat in town,” he said.

Monceaux countered that laughing and said there’s no doubt, though, they will find something to eat on holidays.

“This is a job we wouldn’t trade for anything. We love it,” Billeaud said.

David Ball: 409-721-2427