911 Dispatcher's Last Call Before Retirement: His Father's Death

SHELBY COUNTY, AL — The retirement party for Phillip Morris, a 911 dispatcher for 23 years in Shelby County, Alabama, was interrupted by the final call he would ever take: the news of his father’s death.

"I had to dispatch, as my last words, the passing of my father," Morris told WVTM.

What was to be a joyous occasion abruptly ended. Morris rushed to his father’s home to care for him in the final moments.

"It does hurt," he told WVTM. "You know, you want to be able to do the job and do it well, and they say I did, they say you couldn't tell that I was dispatching to that house."

Morris’ last radio transmission of the day was "88 command reports," dispatch language for death in the field, according to an ABC report. When he recognized the address of the call, he knew his father would be gone.

The Columbiana, Alabama, man told ABC he’s had an “affinity” for taking calls of women going into labor.

“I hold the record in Shelby County for the most babies delivered over the phone, which is seven,” Morris told ABC.

He was so well known locally that all departments wished him farewell through the radio. It was a tribute he would never hear due to the nature of the dispatcher’s final call.

"That's how my career as a dispatcher ended,” he told ABC.