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to make sure I never missed a baseball game or a school play. I’m not going to be retiring with a lot of hours.”
If only there was some way to reduce the number of mothers whose sons or daughters are shot or injured on the job. Perhaps because there is not, Okon has had an ongoing pact with her son for him to call every night when he finishes his tour and is on his way home. That is usually around 10 p.m., and if he is a few minutes late she calls him.
She says the best safeguards against that call not com- ing are raising a son who knows to do the right thing, and that the Department pairs partners who look out for each other no matter what. So when Eddie was shot in the shoulder while chasing down an offender and had to be taken to the hospital last month, Deborah Okon said she felt like she had a district full of sons and daughters.
“After experiencing what we did and all the support we had, you feel like everybody is out there for you,” she shared. “It kind of eases the tension knowing that some- body is always looking out for him, and not just for him. I can’t even describe that feeling.”
What you get and what you have to give up being a po- lice mom and a mom of a police officer sets these moms apart. Weller, for example, knows that because she works nights, she can serve as a homeroom mom for Isabel- la, where some of her 9-to-5 counterparts don’t get that chance.
Deborah Okon and her son, Eddie.
But she was studying to take the Detective’s Exam on May 7. That day also happened to be Isabella’s First Com- munion, which Wendy had to miss. But apparently that’s what it takes to be a police mom.
“I found my purpose in being a police officer and I found a bigger purpose in being a mom,” Weller accentu- ates. “Both things complete me.” d
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