The latch on my large steel watch jammed and I couldn’t get the watch off. A jeweler whose help I sought couldn’t get it off either. After trying for almost half and hour, she suggested I go to the Boston Fire
Department. She reminded me they have the Jaws of Life, although that sounded a little extreme for the watch on my wrist.
I walked into the Jamaica Plain Fire Department on Centre Street and explained to the firemen why I had come. Robert Farmer, Michael Mitchell, and Kris Creighton immediately engaged with the problem. Far from prying the watch apart, they took a small tool and with great care and delicacy poked the side of the latch to release it and free me from my watch. The process took about five minutes.
I respect and admire Boston firefighters. But nothing in my experience prepared me for the courtesy, competence, and kindness with which they addressed my problem. I write to publicly thank them.
Andrea Clardy
Jamaica Plain resident