The Franklin County Times

By Melissa Cason

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Conquering my fear of heights

Published 3:58pm Wednesday, June 9, 2010

OK. I’ll admit it I loved writing this story about Mr. Hall jumping out of an airplane to celebrate his birthday. I even asked Jimmy if we could go to Skydive Alabama to jump out of a plane for our anniversary next month.

While I would love to do this, I just don’t see it happening because I am afraid of heights. It’s not something I’ve always known about.

In fact, I was not even aware I was terrified of high places until about three years ago when I got my first opportunity to take pictures of the Special Response Team.

I had been bugging the members to let me take pictures thinking they would be good to run should the team be deployed. After months of asking, I finally got my shot.

It wasn’t anything fancy. They were repelling from the fire department’s tower. It was cut and dry.

I remember it was about a week before I had surgery on my broken foot so I was hobbling around on my foot without my walking boot at this point.

I remember getting the phone call from Scotty Chandler in the middle of a jewelry party.

After the party wrapped up, I went to the fire department to get my pictures.

It was the first time I had seen the team as whole even though I had already met many of them.

I remember climbing to the top of the tower and looking off. I’ll be honest, my heart was racing. I remember Chandler looking at me and saying, “you’re not scared are you?” I cleverly said “no.”  But, I was thinking ‘I’m more like terrified.’

I took my pictures but the real challenge was going back down the tower. I did not want to climb down those stairs.

I vividly remember one officer carrying my precious camera down and another person walking down with me in case I fell.

I blamed my fear on my recent accident that had left my foot broken, but the truth is I didn’t want to look down.

A year or so later, I found myself on top of Englewood Apartments when the fire department did some training there.

I was very excited to be climbing the ladder truck, but about freaked out when I learned there was only one way down–the way I came up.

Now that I know I am afraid of heights, I try to keep my two feet on the ground.