Twenty Years as a Volunteer Firefighter, Then a PTSD Diagnosis

CBC reports that Ernie Gallant was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after two decades of volunteer service with the New Glasgow Fire Department in Prince Edward Island. Twenty years, then a diagnosis — the order is the detail that lands. And so is “volunteer,” which files two decades of emergency work under something other than the job you're paid for. What the roster calls the role doesn't decide what the role costs the person holding it.