Weddings are beautiful. A day filled with friends and family gathered around to see you make a commitment to the person you love. It is a day that you will remember for the rest of your life and you want to share it with the people you love the most. And that is exactly why police officer, Captain Joseph Barca, got the opportunity to attend a very special wedding.
In December of 1993, Sergeant Barca responded to a call that changed a family’s life forever.
The then-Sergeant Barca got a call that a small baby, just two months old, was not breathing. The girl’s brothers, father, and mother remember the day vividly.
The mother began screaming that their baby girl, Shammarah Hamideh, was not breathing. When police officer, Sergeant Barca, arrived on the scene and checked the baby for vital signs, he found none. Immediately grabbed her and began CPR on the infant in the backseat of the car as they drove the lifeless child to the emergency room. By the time they arrived at the hospital, the baby’s throat was clear, she was breathing and her heart was beating again. Sergeant Barca had saved her life.
The baby’s father was expecting the worst when he saw the officer again at the hospital. But then they heard a baby crying. When Sergeant Barca told the baby’s father that it was his little girl who was crying and that she was alive, the thankful father broke down in tears.
It is now over 20 years later and the families have still kept in touch.
The families have stayed very close ever since that cold, December day. The couple has never missed one of Shammarah’s birthday parties. At Christmas, they always send cards and have kept in touch with the family ever since.
Captain Barca and his wife, Helen, were guests attending a family cookout for the newly married couple. When the officer heard that the little girl he saved so many years ago was getting married, he said, “Not my little baby,” as would any other father would, “of course I’ll be there.”
“He’s like a second father, not just a friend or a hero. He’s family,” explains the new bride, Shammarah.
The family still cries as they think about that fateful day, although Captain Barca reminds them that they are tears of joy. The family thanks God that Captain Barca was there that day to save their child.
Captain Joseph Barca has been on the Yonkers, New York police force for 45 years.
He was there during ground zero and has helped save dozens of lives. The recuse of this baby, however, he says was the highlight of his career.
“I go out there for a reason and the reason is to help people,” says Captain Barca.
The story of this family and their hero is a beautiful example that you do not have to be blood to be family.
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