Tue, Oct 22, 2024 at 01:52 AM

Lifelong crimefighter turned chemo volunteer goes home, passes torch to cancer survivor

Glenn Slaughter had an illustrious career filled with adventure and crime fighting. He was a Marine, an FBI agent, part of an FBI SWAT team, a police chief, a Bureau pilot and a private investigator. What do you do in retirement after a life like that?

That was the question Slaughter asked himself. At 77 years old, Slaughter thought he should do some volunteer work. But what, he wondered. At church one Sunday, he mentioned his quandary to Dr. Andy Finlay, who had retired from a long career at Marshall Medical South and became a volunteer. He eventually took a position at the Marshall Cancer Care Center, which he found very rewarding. He suggested it to Slaughter, who started thinking about it.

One day, as Slaughter and his wife Janice were driving past the Cancer Care Center, he said – as he had many times before - that he planned to volunteer there sometime. Apparently tired of hearing about it, Janice asked if he was really going to do it or just talk about it.

That was the kick in the pants he needed. When he got around to making the call in 2021, volunteers were just starting to come back to the center after the peak of the pandemic. Slaughter was told he was too old to volunteer. At the time, folks over 65 were considered at high-risk for Covid and only those under that age were allowed to volunteer, even though the entire health system desperately needed helping hands.

Slaughter was disappointed by the rejection. Soon, though, fate stepped in and requirements changed. He got a call requesting he apply to the volunteer program. He started in March 2021 assisting the nurses upstairs where patients receive chemotherapy treatments. It turned into a life-changing assignment for the former cop.

“I didn’t have a clue,” he said. “You get to know the patients and their families. The people are wonderful. I love the nurses. The nurses are the best of the best.”

Now Slaughter is retiring again. He has spent 754 hours on the chemo floor helping keep patients comfortable during 4-5 hour infusion sessions. He has stripped beds between patients, re-stocked the blanket warmer so patients will have comfy covers, handed out drinks and snacks. He also has gotten to know patients and their caregivers, cheered when they completed treatments and grieved when some didn’t get better.

He became close with the nurses who administer treatments, and learned to respect the work they do with compassion and love. He said they belong in a Hall of Fame all their own.

“I’ve seen the bad, the ugly, the worst of people in my career,” he said. “Prison ministry wasn’t for me. This was.”

The South Carolina native served in the Marine Corps then earned a Master’s degree in criminology. In 1971 he was accepted into the FBI when J. Edgar Hoover was still director. The Bureau moved him all over – New Orleans, Houston, Beaumont, Newark, NJ, Birmingham and finally Gadsden - where he retired in 1994. That wasn’t the end of his career though.

“I wanted to do something,” recalls the 80-year-old. “Sitting around watching TV is not for me.”

Slaughter was familiar with Guntersville from fishing in the lake. He heard the city needed a police chief and he took the job.

“I loved it,” he said, particularly because the work was local.

When he retired for the second time, he decided to try what he’d seen his agent buddies do. He started a private investigator business. He hired two former agents to help him with surveillance. He worked local cases but used his contacts from all over. He enjoyed working capital murder cases most. That lasted about five years. Slaughter’s next position was on the Marshall County Community Correction Authority started by Judge Tim Riley. Basically it was work release for felons.

“It was a great program,” he said. He helped find jobs for those in the program, took them to work, picked them up and drug tested them. It was a great opportunity for those men, most of which did not make the most of it.

Along the way, the Slaughters raised three children. The youngest is Dr. Matt Slaughter, a dentist in Guntersville. His sister Kacie is director of recruitment at the University of Montevallo. The oldest, Sherry, is principal at a charter school in Florida.

Glenn gives Janice the credit for their successful brood.

“I was gone all the time,” he recalls. “She raised them. Thank God they got her intelligence.”

After a life of picking up and moving with his work, the Slaughters have put down roots in Marshall County. In fact, one of the reasons Glenn is giving up his volunteer position at the Cancer Center is that as grandparents they want to pick up the grandchildren from school and spend time with them. He and Janice have a home out in the country in Albertville.

“I’m at the point where I hate to leave Marshall County,” he says. “We’re living the dream.”

Glenn had the luxury of training his replacement so he knows he’s leaving his job in good hands. Jonathan Hallmark of Boaz applied to be a volunteer just a week or so before Glenn texted his resignation. As a survivor, Hallmark, 55, knows first-hand that chemo volunteers are a beacon in the dismal sea of cancer. Hallmark was ready to start when Glenn was ready to go home. He trained Jonathan to take over his Tuesday morning shift. Glenn said Jonathan will be even better with patients than he was.

“He knows exactly what they are going through.”

Just three days after his dad died in June 2023, Jonathan was scheduled for a colonoscopy. The test was stopped when a large tumor was found. His VA doctor directed him to the Marshall Cancer Care Center for treatment.

“I got wonderful care,” he said. “The staff, the nurses, the doctors were just amazing.”

In an effort to shrink the large, hard tumor, Jonathan endured nine weeks of Immunotherapy then 16 weeks of chemo, then 5 ½ weeks of radiation with chemo. Finally, in mid-March of this year, he was ready for surgery. It took six hours to remove it but pathology reports have shown him to be clear of cancer.

After graduating from Boaz High School, Hallmark joined the Navy where he served three years active duty and three years in the reserves. He followed that with a career in the National Guard where he did one combat tour in Iraq with a group from Guntersville plus a lot of hurricane duty. When he retired from a 22-year military career, he worked in Attalla as a meat cutter at a grocery chain.

Now he is focused on giving back. He watched his fellow patients struggle to deal with their disease. He believes he can use his experience to help those facing it head on.

“I want people to know there is hope, that they can make it,” he said. “I want to shed that light for them. I want to show them that it is possible.”