The recent attacks on police officers across the country have people speaking up, wanting to let officers know they're appreciated. Sometimes all it takes is a simple gesture, like a Facebook post by a woman in Boone County, who wanted to say thank you, first online and Tuesday, in person.
As Boone County Sheriff's Deputy Craig Fouts walked up to the Lebanon house, he was greeted with hugs.
Norma Strunk told him, "I truly appreciate you helping me through this. We all do. I really do."
Fouts responded, "It's our pleasure. It's what we do."
But what he did meant everything to Norma Strunk. Saturday, she got the call that her two sons, Caiden, 6, and Damian, 4, had been seriously hurt in a golf cart accident.
Strunk, with her friend Sheila Crossley at the time, said, "I didn't know what to think or feel. I was a shaking mess. I didn't know what to expect at the hospital. If my kids were okay."
Fouts called the scene "chaotic."
He was the first one there, even though he wasn't on duty.
"If someone else was close by they would have gone, too," he said.
The boys were first transported to Witham Hospital in Lebanon but because of their injuries, they were sent on to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. Fouts was right behind them with Strunk and Crossley following.
"For him to be there, the officer to be there, I was so thankful," Strunk said. "When I got out of the vehicle, he put his hand on my back and told me my kids are going to be okay, that they were talking....It made me feel so much better."
Crossley decided recount the scene and share their gratitude on Boone County's Going Blue Facebook page.
She wrote in part, "We don't know his name or if he's a dad or husband or what. All we know is she was treated with the utmost dignity and respect and a whole lot of compassion. He will never know what he meant to her and she will be forever grateful to his kindness...I think he was a true example of the daily heroism of law enforcement officers."
Fouts told the women, "Most of us are fathers... and we'd have the same reaction if it were our kids."
Caiden and Damian are home recovering after surgery and multiple stitches. Their mother is grateful it wasn't worse.
"I know for myself I'm going to squeeze my kids a little tighter every night...because anything can happen in the blink of an eye," said Strunk.
Fortunately this time, someone was there to help. Fouts was quick to say he did what any other law enforcement officer would do.
"The department I work for, that's how we all are. We do whatever is needed wherever it's needed," he said, adding, "This is a very troubling time. It's nice to know we have citizens on our side."
"I think all officers deserve to be respected the way they're putting their lives on the line every day and that's why I wrote it," said Crossley.
With that, she hugged him once again and said, "Thank you. You guys are awesome."
JR White, a former reserve deputy, started the Facebook page a year ago to highlight "the good things officers are doing."
He said, Crossley's post "took off overnight and the phone hasn't stopped since then."
White said, as of Tuesday afternoon, it had been viewed 44,000 times.
