Lacey Fox loved her families and they loved her.
“She loved her EMS family and she loved her karate kids,” her mother, Patricia, 70, said.
Fox, 35, was an EMT and dispatcher at Mon EMS and the sensei at Fairmont School of Martial Arts, which she opened.
She died at her parents’ house on Dec. 20. Patricia said they aren’t sure what happened, but she had been suffering headaches in the weeks leading to her death.
“She was the love of our lives,” Patricia said.
On Monday, her funeral was held, with honors. People in downtown Morgantown Monday morning might have noticed.
“The public safety community comes together and honors those affiliated with our organizations in that way,” Mon EMS Director Forest Weyen said. “It’s a way for the public safety agencies to show the family how well-loved and supported their loved one was.”
Patricia said the service was wonderful.
Fox had a number of jobs before she was hired by Star City EMS, but none of them really fit, her dad William, 73, said. But once she started her career as an EMT, she was hungry to learn, work and advance, he said.
“She just loved her job,” William said. “She couldn’t wait to get back to it.” She had to take time off because of the headaches.
Fox spent almost two years at her first EMS job with Star City.
Director of EMS John Hitchens said she was newly certified when they hired her but she never let her inexperience affect her.
“She was always very gung-ho and always wanted to learn and was very good at taking bad situations and being able to turn them into something that was a little more light-hearted,” Hitchens said. “Which is certainly something that we all need from time to time.”
Alyssa Elder, who still works at Star City EMS, said Fox started not long after she did.
“She was a very kind person. She loved her work. She was one of my best friends,” Elder said. Fox always had her back and helped her with difficult situations. In the mornings, they would talk outside as Elder’s shift ended and Fox’s began.
Her passion for the job continued at Mon EMS, where she was hired as a dispatcher and an EMT, Weyen said.
The dispatching job at Mon EMS is new and Fox was helping develop and grow the role, Weyen said.
When it came to the other passion in her life — karate — Fox found that early.
She started at 6 and at 14 was state champion, William said.
Her sensei, Ralph Sumlin, said she was a great student if a bit hard-headed at first. He said she was a good learner and it was a joy to work with her.
And she earned her black belt. Sumlin doesn’t give those ranks away.
Fox was a 4th degree black belt and a sensei herself when she passed, Patricia said.
Sumlin said he told Fox the good and the bad parts of opening a school, and guided her when she asked — but as with all his students, once a black belt they’re on their own. Like a mother bird kicking its baby out of the nest.
“She was just an ideal student to be a sensei herself,” he said. “She did right by her students.”
