...Tiffany said she arrived at the St. Joseph's Hospital to find a room full of officers. "I was crying. I started screaming where is he? Is he alive?" she said. "The doctor started crying." Cortez had already been pronounced dead. Tiffany said she asked to be taken to her husband. "I just laid there on his body," she said. "I just kissed him all over, just the smell of him. I just wanted to take him home. It was the hardest thing to leave the hospital. I felt like I was abandoning him."
The days since her husband's death, Tiffany said, have been spent with family and friends remembering Cortez. "I just want people to know he was a great father. He loved his boys. I called him Mr. Mom," she said. "Everybody should know he was a great officer, a great son, a great husband." "We met when we we're 16. His world revolved around me and our family," she said. " I will never fall in love with anybody again. I will never love anyone like I love George."Source: Fallen police officer mourned, The Arizona Republic, Dianna M. Náñez, Jul. 29, 2007
See more on Officer Cortez here.
A memorial account has been set up at Bank of America.
Police Officer George Cortez Jr.
Phoenix Police Department, Arizona
End of Watch: Friday, July 27, 2007
Age: 23
Tour of Duty: 2 years
Badge Number: 8232
Tiffany said she asked to be taken to her husband. "I just laid there on his body," she said. "I just kissed him all over, just the smell of him. I just wanted to take him home. It was the hardest thing to leave the hospital. I felt like I was abandoning him."
ReplyDeleteThat is the hardest part of my job....listening to people grieve. I don't even have to hear it, reading it makes me want to cry. Blessings to her family.
This kind of love and pain would move me no matter what, but it really got me because for YEARS I had dreams OFTEN of running down hospital halls, weeping, trying to get to my husband in time. Tiffany lived my nightmare - and at the same time
ReplyDeleteher love is
so bright
you have to
squint.
Let's keep this strong mama/wife in our prayers.
The moment that you died,
ReplyDeletemy heart split in two.
One side filled with memories.
The other died with you.
I often lay awake at night,
when the world is fast asleep.
And take a walk down memory lane,
with tears upon my cheeks.
Remembering you is easy,
I do it every day.
But missing you is heartache,
that never goes away.
I hold you tightly within my heart,
and there you will remain.
Life has gone on without you,
But never will be the same.