KINDERHOOK, TWP. MI — Jody Lewis said goodbye to one family after 39 years, retiring from the Lakeland Volunteer Fire Department in October.

That fire family helped mold her real family as she served the department. Her three children are in fire-related services.

Lewis, 65, convinced her husband, Bob, to volunteer as one of the first in the department, which was formed over 40 years ago to serve Ovid and Kinderhook townships. She became a department dispatcher and went to fires, provided water, and took pictures.

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