Shelley Hegedus
Writer
Shelley is a former teacher and teacher leader from Langley, BC. She was married to a firefighter and captain for the Vancouver Fire Department in Vancouver, BC. In August, 2024, Shelley lost her husband, Ron, to occupational cancer. This set off a turn of events, including early retirement and finishing the story that he was telling his friends and family on social media. Ron wanted other firefighters to be aware of proper screening and testing for cancer and, ultimately, the slow arrival of PTSD. Shelley tells us what it is like to live through this experience, and she is writing a memoir that she hopes will help firefighter spouses and firefighters, fire departments, and first responders while honouring her husband's legacy.
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Aug. 26, 2026
When the Job Comes Home: A Firefighter Widow’s Story of Love, Loss, and Finding Herself Again
What happens when the job quietly begins following a firefighter home? Shelley Hegedus joins Arjuna George to tell the story of her late husband Ron, a Vancouver firefighter who died from occupational cancer in 2024. Shelley describes the subtle changes she began noticing years earlier, including hypervigilance, irritability, disrupted sleep, increased protectiveness and withdrawal. At the time, each change seemed explainable. Looking back, she began seeing how deeply occupational stress had entered their home and relationship. Shelley also shares Ron's cancer journey, the realities of caregiving, the extraordinary community that surrounded them, and her own experience of losing parts of herself along the way. Following Ron's death, Shelley began rebuilding her independence through therapy, journaling, connection, nature, friendship, travel and writing. A deeply personal conversation about firefighter families, occupational cancer, grief, identity, love and finding your…
Guest: Shelley Hegedus