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On those days when the phone is ringing off the hook and Tanya Barrett realizes she hasn’t gotten up from her desk in hours, she grounds herself by looking at the red-and-white dive flag in her office.

Her husband, Mark Barrett, was a member of the Virginia State Police Search and Recovery Team, whose emblem is embroidered on the flag. He drowned in a diving accident during a training session in a murky lake on Sept. 14, 2010. Their daughter was 15 when he died; their son was just 6.

“Every time I feel frustrated, or things aren’t going my way, I always look up at that flag and just go, ‘This is why you’re here,’” Barrett says. “You’re here to make sure nobody ever has to – even though they have to walk in your shoes or similar shoes – you can help ease that burden.

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