The Last Photo

Ness:
What is that?

Malone:
[surprised] “What is that?”

Ness:
Yes, what is it?

Malone:
God, I’m with the heathen. [shows medallion, with a key on the chain] That is my call box key, and that is St. Jude.

Stone:
Santo Jude. He’s the patron saint of the lost causes.

Malone:
And policemen.

Ness:
Patron saint of policemen?

Malone:
Everybody needs a friend.

Untouchables, 1987

One Peter 5 has an extremely powerful post by the wife of a cop, a Catholic homeschooling mother of four, and the dread that families of cops learn to live with:

He doesn’t know that I call this photo, “the last photo.” He doesn’t know that I have a collection, spanning nearly a decade, of “last photos” just in case… There is only a small percentage of spouses out there that seriously have to say goodbye with their whole heart when their partner leaves for work. Do you know how it feels to discuss increasing his life insurance because the climate of the world is anti-police right now and I can’t afford to raise four kids on my own with our measly savings. The brutal truth is that I take this last photo so that I have an up-to-date photo in case the media needs it, in case he dies. This last time, I didn’t have the chance to get the kids out of their dinner stained pajamas so I edited it to be black and white so you don’t see the tomato sauce and peanut butter. He doesn’t know that my heart trembles while I take the photo, he looks so happy with his kids in his arms and they look so safe wrapped under him and all I can think about is “what if this is the last photo”… Grim? Macabre? Maybe…  but I don’t care. What if it is the last photo? I would be so thankful that I took it. I would be so thankful that he spent those twenty minutes before leaving, on his knees, in prayer with his family.

I would be so thankful for those stolen glances at his perfect profile speaking the words, “…deliver us from evil…”

I was talking with a friend about this “last photo” this morning and she asked me to write this. She suggested that I ask all police spouses to share their own version of “the last photo,” to create a movement, to see the person behind the badge. Can you share this and ask those you know who are married to police officers if they are “ok”? Can you see if they need help when they are alone for the seventh evening in a row, putting kids to sleep? Can you send them a message when the media reports another horrific police death because let me tell you, we all bleed blue and cry for those who have fallen because they are one of our own. I see my tears on their wives faces and my children standing beside the casket.

I wish that I never had to write this but I am so thankful that I have this opportunity to open up about my deepest fear because the family waiting at home often keeps these things locked up at home because we have heard it all before and have learned to grow a thick skin. I don’t want to become a jaded police wife. We aren’t those people. My heart cries out for justice for ALL the victims and fatherless families. My heart aches for all of the mothers who are tucking their kids into bed alone tonight. This isn’t us versus them. This isn’t my pain versus yours. I just wanted to let you know that when you see a photo of my husband and kids on one of my social media accounts, what you didn’t know is that while I was taking it, I was hoping and praying that this photo would not become the last photo. 

Go here to read the rest.  Societies rest ultimately upon the backs of those willing to endure danger and hardship to protect them.  When most people in a society forget this, they are not long for this world.