Some of Keith Judge’s most vivid memories of his late father contain lights.

For example, he recalls the urgency of the red lights, part of Terrence Judge’s DNA and Keith’s childhood, swirling on the trucks inside the Pembroke firehouse each time someone needed help, or atop Terrence’s pickup truck after a late-night message from dispatch had suddenly meant he was back on duty, his two young boys in tow.

Terrence also strung the multi-colored Christmas lights at the Pembroke fire station, year after year, and he did the same at his home in Allenstown. As his former boss, Chief Paul Gagnon, said last week, “He WAS Christmas at the fire station.”

He’ll certainly be the focus in 10 months, at the family’s first Christmas since Terrence died suddenly on March 24 from a stroke. He was 64.

He was a sergeant in the Army, a lieutenant with the Pembroke Fire Department, and as loyal as Lassie everywhere he landed.

“Dad spent most of his life serving his community,” said Keith Judge, Terrence’s 38-year-old son, who lives in Hooksett. “I am pretty proud of that, and I know he was.”

Terrence was part of something that features chain-like bonds. When a firefighter gets married, an already huge statewide family gets bigger. And when a firefighter dies, that same huge family loses a member, whether you had met the firefighter or not.

The Pembroke fire station reflects this. Once parents join the department, their children forever have a playground that features far more than monkey bars.

Terrence’s father, John Judge, was captain of the fire department in Stoneham, Mass. And Chief Gagnon’s son, John, used to play with Terrence’s son, also named John, in a surreal world of huge red trucks and loud sirens.

“All the kids were climbing on the trucks,” Chief Gagnon said.

Added Keith Judge, “My brother and I were raised at the Pembroke Fire Department. There were fire calls, and other fire children would hang out and watch TV.”

About 10 years ago, Keith had stage 4 cancer of the tonsils, with no guarantees that he could beat it and live. He and Terrence often went out for breakfast after Keith’s treatments.

One day, over coffee, Terrence had a request.

“Do one thing for me,” he said to Keith. “I need you to outlive me.”

“I told him that was fine,” Keith said. “But at that point, that was not a guarantee.”

Following a grueling program of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, Keith was declared cancer free. Terrence served 33 years with the Pembroke Fire Department and watched his sons raise their families.

No one, though, had a clue that Terrence was nearing a stroke. He never showed up to his part-time job as a maintenance man late last month, and Terrence was never, ever, late.

Phone calls from Chief Gagnon, Pembroke police and others tried and failed to reach him. Police found him lifeless on the floor.

He was honored on Friday. A ladder truck was parked in front of the funeral home and hundreds of fellow firefighters from 12 departments around the Granite State attended.

They’d all lost a family member. Keith remembered those rides in his father’s pickup when Terrence was off duty. But once Terrence heard the call from dispatch, he was off in a flash.

“It was the red lights and then zoom through town to the fire department,” Keith said. “We were always conscious of what it meant when the lights went off.”

These days, Keith has adopted Terrence’s tradition. At the station and his home, he staples lights and sets up Christmas trees. He decorates them and blows up balloon characters, like old Santa himself.

And he does this annually on the day after Thanksgiving. That’s the way his father used to do things.

“It’s now a tradition I have with my family,” Keith said. “Black Friday is the Christmas day we get all that done. Dad loved Christmas.”

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