National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial

TRIBUTE STORIES

HEART TO HEART: REMEMBERING LYNETTE
Sgt. Teri Cariota, Surviving Co-worker

Following is the text of a speech I gave on May 6, 2004, at the annual law enforcement officers memorial ceremony at Tropical Park in Miami-Dade County, Florida:

Good evening. It is an honor to have been asked to speak here tonight and I want to thank you for inviting me. When I attended my first memorial service here at Tropical Park I was among the officers who stood on the perimeter, adjacent to their vehicles, turning their overhead lights on during that solemn part of the ceremony. I wanted to see what it was all about and to pay my respects to the fallen officers. When Lynette Hodge’s name was added to the roll call of those officers who had died in the line of duty, I became a surviving co-worker and friend, sitting in front with the family members, listening to the guest speakers. Now, here I am at the podium, speaking to all of you, the families, friends, co-workers. It is particularly special for me to be up here, in uniform, since this may very well be the last memorial service I attend as a sworn officer. I will continue to attend to pay my respects, but as a retired officer. I’m one of the lucky ones who survived a twenty-one year career in law enforcement and will get to retire.

Lynette Hodge wasn’t so lucky. At the young age of thirty, her career . . . and her life . . . were cut tragically short. Her life began in 1963, when she was born in New York, the third child of James and Laura Hodge. She began her career as a police officer in 1990 with the Opa Locka Police Department. In 1993, she became a part of the North Miami Police family. Opa Locka’s loss was North Miami’s gain. She was a wonderful human being . . . always cheerful and smiling . . . a genuine, self-proclaimed “people person.” I was Lynette’s Field Training Officer . . . that is how I got to know her so well in so short a time. Since she was already an experienced officer, we spent as much time talking about her and her family as we did about work. We talked about her enjoyment of country & western music . . . I always found that interesting about her, an African-American New Yorker whose family comes from the small island of Anguilla in the Caribbean, listening to “cowboy” music. Of course, what she talked about most was her daughter, Keisha. I remember her showing me piles of pictures of Keisha, who was only six years old then . . . and bringing Keisha to the station so she could see where mommy worked. She was so proud of Keisha and she loved her so much. I know she is just as proud of Keisha today . . . for Keisha has grown into a beautiful young lady. After her mother’s death, Keisha studied martial arts and earned her black belt in Tae Kwon Do. She is currently a member of the Junior ROTC at South Plantation High School. She actually enjoys the regimented marching and is even considering a career in the military. Grandma has done a great job in raising Keisha . . . but Keisha’s successes can also be attributed to Lynette’s special gift for interacting with children. Lynette provided the foundation . . . the roots . . . upon which Keisha has blossomed. Lynette loved working with kids. She was a D.A.R.E. officer when she worked for Opa Locka. She was about to become a D.A.R.E. officer for North Miami as well. Her business cards with her new title had already been printed . . . she was just waiting for shift change in January.

Sadly, the elementary school students in North Miami never got the opportunity to have Lynette stand before them in their classrooms and teach them about the dangers of drugs and gangs. Lynette had only been with North Miami for eight months when, on November 16th, 1993, while working the Midnight Shift, Lynette’s life took a turn for the worse . . . literally. She had been sitting side-by-side, talking to her supervisor, when a fellow officer needed emergency back-up assistance just a few blocks away. In the middle of the night, with virtually no traffic on the street, she tried to get to him as quickly as possible. As she rounded the corner, her car missed the turn and hit the curb, causing it to go airborne. The car flipped and she was ejected. She was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center.

I remember how I first learned of this horrible tragedy. I was home sleeping at the time. I happen to have a habit of falling asleep with the TV on. When the early morning news came on, they gave a traffic report telling motorists to avoid the area of US1/Biscayne Blvd. and 123rd Street . . . traffic was shut down due to a serious accident. Half asleep, I remember thinking how relieved I was that I was not working. Then I heard them say a police officer was involved. Before I had a chance to pick up the phone to call the station . . . it rang. It was the station calling me . . . calling to tell me what had happened . . . they thought I would want to know. They were right. I got to Ryder Trauma Center as quickly as I could.

I had met Lynette’s parents once before when I gave Lynette a ride home from work one evening. Now I was seeing them again, but under much different circumstances. They were sitting with some of the staff from the Trauma Center. The staff was discussing organ donation with them. Lynette wanted to be an organ donor. I don’t think they knew that prior to that day. Or perhaps it was just that they didn’t want to let go . . . understandably so. Lynette was being kept alive by machines. We all hope for a miracle, but it wasn’t meant to be. Her heart was still beating, but her brain was no longer alive. I remember it took a while for everyone to convince the family that this is what Lynette wanted . . . to save the lives of others even after her death, just as she had done during her life.

People say the Lord works in mysterious ways. And so he did with Lynette . . . was it just coincidence or was it fate that her heart went to a relative of someone in our law enforcement family, the mother of Barbara Vargas. (Barbara Vargas is the surviving spouse of Miami-Dade Police Officer Robert Vargas who died in the line of duty on 2/7/1997.) Unfortunately, the recipient has since passed on, but by receiving Lynette’s heart she was able to spend more time with her loved ones. I’m sure there isn’t anyone here who doesn’t wish they could have had more time, whether it’s years, months, or even days, with their spouse, their child, their parent, if only they had known beforehand they were going to lose them to such an untimely death.

Unfortunately, the Hodges never had an opportunity to meet the recipient. I know Lynette’s mother, Laura, would have liked to have felt Lynette’s heart beating one more time. That is not possible, but I want to say to you, Laura, that whenever you want to feel close to Lynette, all you have to do is give a great big hug to your granddaughter, Keisha. Just as Lynette gave the gift of life to others through her organ donations, she gave you the gift of Keisha. Keisha is a gift to be treasured. She is so much like her mother. When you want to look into Lynette’s eyes . . . just look into Keisha’s . . . you will see a part of Lynette there . . . and there’s always that big smile of hers . . . just like her mother’s.

Even now, more than ten years since her death, Lynette continues to save the lives of others. Her picture is on a poster promoting organ donation. It can be seen in driver’s license bureaus throughout the state. My own mother saw the poster one day when she was renewing her license in Palm Beach County. She commented to the examiner that I had been a co-worker and friend of Lynette’s. What a small world we live in.

Even while I was preparing this speech, one of our newly hired dispatchers stopped by my office. I happened to mention what I was doing, even though she had never known Lynette. Ironically, she told me a story that did have a connection to Lynette. She said that shortly after Lynette’s death, she was driving fast because she was in a hurry to get home to take her stepson to the doctor. She was stopped by a North Miami police officer for speeding. The officer told her that the Department had just lost an officer in a tragic traffic accident, and cautioned her to slow down so that the same didn’t happen to her. He didn’t issue her a citation . . . the tears in her eyes indicated she had learned a lesson from that tragedy.

We can learn many lessons from life’s tragedies, and so I want to conclude by issuing each and every one of you here this evening two challenges: I want to challenge everyone to become an organ donor. I also want to challenge each and every person here to try to tell your family members you love them each and every day before you or they leave for work . . . because you never know when it might be the last time you ever have that opportunity.

Thank you.