<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">As the clock ticks on . . .</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of KOB News (Albuquerque, New Mexico) at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3178641.shtml?cat=500">http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3178641.shtml?cat=500</a></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 3px 3px 3px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 24px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wife of fallen firefighter breaks her silence</h1><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For the first time, the wife of fallen wildland firefighter Token Adams breaks her silence.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Adams was killed about a month ago in an ATV crash while checking out reports of smoke in the Jemez Mountains.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In just the last few weeks, his wife Hiedi not only lost her husband, she also gave birth to a daughter.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now, the federal government shutdown has frozen her late husband's federal benefits.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is a difficult conversation. The first one she's had out in the open since her husband's death.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But she says her voice is one of many wives and husbands and children helpless as the federal government shuts down and leaves them with nowhere to turn for help.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In every stream and sun-painted canvas of the Jemez, Hiedi Adams hears the whispers of a man she says belonged to this land.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"It's hard, driving into the mountains," Hiedi said. "'Cause I see him. It's hard. It's hard to see it every day."</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As days turned into a week in early September, at the end of a long search in the same mountains he loved, Token Adams, the love of Hiedi's life was found lifeless on a stable mesa in the Jemez.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Doesn't really seem like it's happened," Hiedi said. "It's miserable. Lonely."</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But that crushing loss, that loneliness, became joy two weeks ago when Hiedi gave birth to Ayla.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But, just as the joy set in, so did the government shutdown.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"I had a meeting set for benefits tomorrow," Hiedi said.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hiedi was supposed to finalize her late husband's federal benefits, but the meeting set for tomorrow has been canceled. She's told it could be as much as four weeks before Token's benefits begin.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Suddenly a single mom, Hiedi said she wants New Mexicans to know what families like hers are going through as the federal government furloughs employees. She said she's one of the lucky ones. The community has stepped up with donations.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"That's what I'm living off of," Hiedi said.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But, not everyone is in her shoes.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"You know, you have families who are both on government pay and you think up to four weeks without a paycheck, what's that going to do for their families?" Hiedi wondered. "I feel for them. It's going to be really tough."</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And tough doesn't seem to do it justice. But then Hiedi looks around, at the mountains echoing her husband's memory, and her children echoing it too. And happiness reigns, for now.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-style: italic;">Hiedi Adams with her newborn daughter, Ayla.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><img src="cid:7D1BAFF0-00FE-45D9-A967-465F99B86AE1" alt="hiedi-adams.jpg" id="7D1BAFF0-00FE-45D9-A967-465F99B86AE1" width="300" height="169"></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div></div></body></html>