Assistant Demorest Fire Chief Jerry Palmer has been in the fire services for decades. He’s faced a lot of tough assignments in his day, but none more heart-rending or challenging than what he now faces.
Palmer is planning the funeral of a young firefighter who passed away over the weekend after a short but courageous battle with cancer. On June 21, doctors diagnosed Garrett Reiser with glioblastoma, an aggressive and lethal brain cancer. On Sunday night, September 11, he passed away.
Gone too soon
“We knew it was coming, we just didn’t know it was coming with only a few hour’s notice,” says Palmer, expressing the pain and shock Reiser’s colleagues felt at hearing the news.
Though just 22, Garrett Reiser had worked with the Demorest Fire Department for over five years. He was known as a hard worker, selfless, kind, and positive. He was the type of person anyone would be blessed to call a friend.
“I saw a side of the kid that was just unbelievable in the face of all this,” says Palmer. “He didn’t whine. He didn’t cry. He was a comfort to everybody else.”
“He was a heck of a dude,” adds Baldwin firefighter Jacob Roy.
Roy came to know Reiser through a mutual firefighting buddy. He sponsored a bass fishing tournament last month to raise money for medical expenses. He was scheduled to meet Reiser this week to give him the $2,000 they raised. Now, Roy says, “I’m going to have to hand it off to one of his family members.”
Brothers’ beach trip
By all accounts, family, faith, and fighting fires were at the center of Garrett Reiser’s life. One of seven children, public service was in his blood. One of his brothers is a firefighter in Demorest and another is an AirLife paramedic.
Ten days before his death, Garrett returned to work for his final shift. Weakened by cancer, he rode along on calls with his best friend, Capt. Payton Cagle. He then spent what was to be the last week of his life with his brothers in Florida. They returned home on Saturday. Within 24 hours, he was gone.
Deeply saddened by the loss, Palmer finds some solace in knowing how Garrett spent his final days.
“Who that’s ever had this [glioblastoma] can say when asked what did you do on your last week on earth? ‘My brothers and I went to the beach and had a blast!'”
The veteran firefighter marvels at how much the young firefighter taught him.
“We were 33 years apart in age but I learned so much about life from this kid who never batted an eye. He never got angry at God. He never questioned the plan. He never did any of that,” says Palmer. “The world’s a lesser place without him in it.”
Paying tribute
Garrett Reiser is survived by his parents Emory and Deborah Reiser, of Cleveland, and six siblings.
He will be buried with full fire department honors on Wednesday, September 14. The funeral is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Gethsemane Baptist Church in Cornelia. On the way to the church, a procession will carry Reiser’s body from Hillside Funeral Home in Clarkesville down Historic Highway 441 past his firehouse in Demorest.
The procession is scheduled to leave Hillside Funeral Home on GA 197 South around 12:20 p.m. It will head north and turn left onto Railroad Avenue, then left onto Historic Highway 441.
Palmer asks the community to pray for Reiser’s family and, “if you’re so moved, on Wednesday to line the roads in honor of this young man. That would be an awesome and well-deserved tribute.”
