Huckleberries Online

Alan Broden: A Life Lived Well

Posted by DFO

March 30, 2009 3:42 p.m. • 9 comments

For more than 30 years, late Kootenai County 911 dispatcher Alan Broden was the calm voice in the face of chaos, directing patrol officers and emergency responders to their destinations. His retirement on Dec. 1 left a hole in the 911 dispatch center. His unexpected death Feb. 28 left a hole in the lives of his loved ones and friends. Hundreds attended his funeral. A day later, hardship hit the family again when daughter Sarah, a University of Idaho student, fell and fractured two bones in her lower leg. Which required surgery and a wheelchair. In an e-mail to Huckleberries Online, Alan’s daughter, Cyndi Broden Holbert, of Pocatello, tells what happened next: “My parent’s house was not equipped for wheelchair access, but thanks to the EMS crew from the Northern Lakes Fire Department (who transported my Dad to the hospital the day he died), and with materials and funds donated by Avista, a wheelchair ramp was built on Sunday (March 22).” By being the person he was, Cyndi concludes, her father “somehow made sure he would take care of us even when he was gone.” That’s what you call “paying it forward.”

Question: Have you ever made a local 911 distress call?

Nine comments on this post so far. Add yours!

JeanieSpokane on March 30 at 5:07 p.m.
Yes, I have called 911 here in Spokane. I knew a dispatch operator but I didn’t get her. It was very late at night and I was sitting on the floor cutting out a dress pattern, pieces of material everywhere, my boys sound asleep, all’s well with the world, the Tonight Show was on. BANG BANG BANG on my door.

I about jumped out of my skin. I went to the door and said “Who’s there?” and nobody answered.

BANG BANG BANG again.

I went straight for my wall phone in the kitchen and called 911, praying it would be Sherry on the other end. It wasn’t - but she was there and heard who they were talking to. She gets on and it’s like this:

Sherry: Go to the door and see who it is.
Me: YOU go to the door and see who it is.
Sherry: They won’t hurt you - just go to the door.
Me: No way in hell am I going to that door.
Sherry: Alright - I’ll send a car.

So I race through the living room and gather up all the material, thread, scissors, patterns and try to find some place to stash them so I don’t look like such a pig - so I throw them all down the basement stairs.

Knock Knock - “it’s the police.”

I open the door and it’s a friend of mine. I about jumped into his arms. He said they would canvas the house and he offered to check my basement. “NO! There’s NOTHING in the basement!” And I’m thinking - what is worse - a burglar in my basement or the fact that I’m such a horrible housekeeper that anything I can’t put away is scattered on the basement stairs.

Then a young kid walks up and asks if his brother is here (a friend of my son’s).

Come to discover that his mother was looking for her son and thought he was at my house at 11:30 at night.

**She is deaf.**

But 911 saved my life!!!
JBelle on March 30 at 5:57 p.m.
I called 911 to tell them I found my baby in the deep end of the swimming pool, dived down and got him, brought him back up, ashy gray with no pulse nor heartbeat.
hhuseland on March 30 at 8:51 p.m.
Jbelle, you didn’t say whether your baby survived.
hhuseland on March 30 at 9:20 p.m.
To Alan … Rest in Peace. Your 30 years of dedication to our community is and will not be forgotten. None of us last forever, but sometimes the memories do.
JBelle on March 30 at 9:26 p.m.
well. We live in a very tricky place although only 10 minutes from downtown. It took the paramedics over 15 minutes to get here. In the meantime, the operator instructed me on baby CPR, which is different, and I got a heartbeat back and got him breathing again. But he was down for a long time, Finally got him to the hospital where was in ICU for two weeks; the docs were very concerned with brain damage. He had to fight his way back from chemical pneumonia. Long story short, he just got a near perfect score on the GMATafter graduating from college last May so we believe the residual effects of any brain damage he may have suffered have been mitigated. :) Thank you for asking, Herb. It was singularly the most traumatic episode of my life. I still can’t talk too much about it but apparently I’m learning to write about it! ;)

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.