As is tradition, Capt. David Hudson’s last day of work with the Bath Fire Department ended with a ride home in a fire engine.

Hudson, who began working with the department in 1986, said he never knew he’d be there for more than three decades.

“It’s definitely been an excellent career,” he said during his ride home Sunday morning. “I would highly recommend it.”

Hudson said he has loved both sides of his job — being a firefighter and paramedic — but that he especially loved working on the ambulance.

As one of the department’s first paramedics, he’s helped many people through the worst moments of their lives. While it’s all in a day’s work for a paramedic, these moments have lasting significance for patients.

“It’s a big deal,” Hudson said. “It’s a life-changing event.”

“I still love my job, and that’s the time to leave,” Hudson continued. “Thirty years is a long time to be doing this … you see a lot of disturbing things over 30 years.”

There are good outcomes and sometimes there are bad outcomes, but Hudson says it’s a great job overall. The crews he’s worked with over the years have been excellent, he said, so he’s been very fortunate.

Hudson has been planning his retirement for years, so he’s had time to prepare. Still, he said it will be an adjustment when the tone goes out and his friends answer the emergency call without him.

Hudson will still roll up to some emergency scenes, however, as he runs the paramedic program for Mid Coast Hospital. He plans to continue in that role for a few more years before retiring, and then hopes to travel with his wife, Lynn Hudson.

Lynn was 24 when she first met David, who was 19. They were both working at the former Bath Memorial Hospital. Over the years, she said she’d grown used to being the wife of a firefighter.

“You worry a lot,” she said. “But he loved his job, saved a lot of lives and I’m very proud of him.”

She added, “Both his kids have followed in his footsteps.”

The couple’s son, Joey, just graduated from college where he was in a law enforcement program and their daughter, Katie, is a paramedic in Salem, Massachusetts.

Sunday’s ride home was very emotional for Lynn — she was moved to tears when her husband’s retirement announcement was broadcast over the radio in Sagadahoc County, and remembered early moments in his career.

“I remember the first call when he was at Bath (Fire Department),” she said. She was with her David and another firefighter and his wife at The Bounty, a former restaurant in the city.

“They get a call and they leave us there. Now what do we do? … I bring my own car now,” she said laughing. “It’s been a great job. He’s really enjoyed it.”

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