To the Editor:

Evelyn needs help!

That was the sign board in front of the Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Company station in Unionville. I passed it several times between my home in Clarksville and my work in Albany. I thought about the message, contacted the fire company, and became a member — not to fight fires but to help Evelyn Cole, who was the captain of the rescue squad.

In the next years I worked with Evelyn and learned more about the remarkable woman she was. As part of the rescue squad, I knew she was the key for the squad, important for southern New Scotland and even when the OVFC ambulance was called elsewhere. Usually Evelyn was the emergency medical technician who responded to the calls.

At that time, in the late 1980s and the 1990s, the rescue squad was the ultimate response to medical calls. There were no paramedics on every call. There were no sheriff’s ambulances as backup for the Onesquethaw ambulance.

The ultimate decision for medical action on site was the EMT (of course in contact via radio with physicians). And, on almost every call, Evelyn Cole was in charge.

She was not employed to my knowledge, and her children were adults. Her principal activity was as the captain of the OVFC rescue squad. She was available every hour, seven days a week except for one hour when she left the OVFC district for grocery shopping.

Her house was across the street from the OVFC station in Clarksville where the ambulance was located. If she went away from her house or the station, she was in the district.

A diversion for her was an hour to look at garage sales in New Scotland. Still, she was available in her OVFC jacket and with her two-way radio ready to meet the ambulance.

My help at first was assistant to the EMT but in a short time I was a driver and then an EMT myself, Still, I was confident when I went on a call with Evelyn.

I admired her conduct during difficult calls. She was as captain the experienced person who helped her crew. For example, after she had investigated a particular situation, she suggested, while the event was over, other crew might stay aside uninvolved since a disturbing site remained. I was grateful to her.

I should add that Evelyn’s family members were often part of the rescue squad. Her husband, Clyde, sometimes was the driver. Her son Mark and her daughter-in-law Gerry were helpers.

I did not know Evelyn’s age until I saw her obituary; she died at 92 on Oct. 31, 2023. I knew she was older than I.

At some point, she retired from her volunteer rescue work. I should have thought then it was time to make known what Evelyn had given to her community, what a generous, giving person she had been through her volunteering.

I am sorry I only thought about it then. I try here now to make known her gift.

Geoffrey Stein

Clarksville