The first day of school often brings mixed emotions, including excitement and a little fear. For the Peterson family, this day was no different, although it was bittersweet.

“Guys, we’re going to let you walk her to class,” Principal Elizabeth Hostin said to a crowd of waiting firefighters and engineers from the Lancaster Fire Department. Then, at about 7:15 a.m., the fire truck pulled up to Boren Elementary School in Mansfield, horn blaring. “Good morning!”

The back door opened and Kayla Peterson got out with her older sister Avery and her mother Allison.

“Are you ready to go?” Cole Turner, battalion chief of the Lancaster Fire Department, whispered to Kayla, taking her hand. “Yes,” she answered quietly.

Kayla’s father, Lancaster firefighter Brandon Peterson, died of cancer in the line of duty in 2020.

“Before Brandon died, we told him we have his girls. No matter what it is, we always have them,” Turner said.

On Wednesday, that meant firefighters picked up Kayla and escorted her to her first day of kindergarten, just as they had done with her older sister.

“We are fathers and every little girl should have her daddy,” Turner said. “They don’t, but we will fill any gap we can.”

“He loved those girls so much, he was so grateful that all those people came,” said Kayla’s mother, Allison Peterson. “We really try to cherish those moments because I know not everyone gets to experience having firefighters take them to school in a fire truck.”

Kayla went to her classroom with firefighters and her mother to prepare for her first day.

“Your father’s picture is in your locker, OK,” Peterson whispered to her daughter. “I just want her to keep these memories and know that he loves her.”

“She still cares about her father,” Hostin said. “But to have these men physically present in her life is incredible.”

“We’re family. He was family,” said Brett Cook, engineer with the Lancaster Fire Department. “He would be happy to see this.”