Front line, foster care and family

WHITE LAKE — The wife of police officer Tim Hester said it’s hard knowing he goes out into the unknown each night on his shift.

The veteran lawman describes her support at home as a source of strength.

“I can’t wait until I hear that Velcro rip off in the morning,” Cornelia Hester says.

Then, she said, she finally can breathe a sigh of relief.

Earlier this month, that sigh of relief came after a night in which Tim saved a man’s life by using an overdose reversal medicine. It is something he’s done before.

At home, however, he’s in the midst of a first-time experience together.

Each with children from previous relationships, and one child together, they have added a foster child. She’s been a foster parent before, but for Tim, it’s something new.

The child, who was born with a few medical issues at birth, is now thriving in their home, they say. He came home from the hospital at just two days old. He’s now four months.

“There are so many kids and not enough homes,” Cornelia says. “There’s not hardly any homes in Bladen County, and the child that we have is from Robeson County.”

She got the call when she was at work, and ended up taking him because no one over there could do it. For the first few days she had to take him to work with her at the dentist office.

“He had to spend an extra night in the hospital because there was nowhere to take him,” she said. “We agreed to take him even though we both work full-time jobs. It was hard. He couldn’t go to daycare for the first six weeks.”

He’s adjusting nicely, they say. Their family has eased his difficulty when he had days and nights mixed up. She says everyone was able to pull together.

Their kids are older, so this was like starting from scratch.

“It’s a little bit more to get used to, when you have to go back,” Tim says.

They wouldn’t change it for anything.

“You have to prepare your heart,” Cornelia says. “It’s very rewarding, but it takes a big toll on your heart.”

They had to do background checks, get fingerprinted at the Sheriff’s Office, and go through a six-week class.

Amid the transition, Tim’s job responsibilities recently brought him to a situation where he helped save a man’s life.

“I was called to Camp Clearwater to Whitley Street,” he said. “There was a man inside doing CPR on a man.”

Hester continued to do CPR, and found out from a bystander that the man had taken narcotics. In addition to that they are thought to have been drinking all day.

“I administered Narcan, and I kept doing CPR, for about 10 to 15 seconds afterwards and he started breathing again. That’s when EMS took over,” he said.

Narcan is an opioid overdose reversal medicine with naloxone. Many first responders carry it, and Eastpointe — a managed care organization that serves Bladen County and 10 others in the region — regularly makes donations of Narcan to law enforcement and EMS. It’s also available in drug stores without a prescription.

Police Chief Bruce Smith said he was super proud of the efforts of Hester to help the individual.

“He is a great guy and an asset to our team,” Smith said. “He used his skills to help someone and we appreciate what he’s done.”

Hester, in law enforcement since 2004, said that he used to work in Bladenboro, and had to do it twice there.

“Law enforcement is just like any other job,” Tim says. “There are a few bad people that try to ruin it for others.”

At home and at work, his mission along with his wife is to make things better — be it saving a man’s life in the line of duty, or cradling a newborn in need of a loving family.