If Lindy Marshall were to write a book, she already has a working title: “You can’t make this up.”

That’s what nearly 50 years as an emergency medical technician will do.

“I’m so lucky to have gotten into this and I know it. I absolutely know it,” Marshall said recently.

In April 1975, Marshall became the first female firefighter in the state when she was sworn in by the Noank Fire Department. Shortly thereafter one of her captains suggested she take a first aid course.

“I was like, ‘Who, me?’ I used to hide under my bed when an ambulance came down the street,” Marshall said.

She started with Groton Ambulance, moved over to Hoxie Ambulance in 1977, and then stayed when the company became Mystic River Ambulance. She’s been there ever since and, at 70 years old, still works full-time with no signs of slowing up.

“It keeps me active,” Marshall said. “I love helping people. The camaraderie in EMS (Emergency Medical Services) is great. It keeps me in good physical shape, gives me a reason to get up in the morning. I still love it. It’s that simple. I’ll know when the time is right.”

Marshall has also taught CPR and first aid all over Connecticut and Rhode Island, worked for 15 years at the Lawrence + Memorial emergency room, volunteers at Backus Hospital vaccination sites and dispatches for Dunn’s Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Services.

Marshall has three grown children and 12 granchildren. She lives in Stonington with her two rescue dogs, Sadie and Snoopie.

One of her sons is a Groton Town police officer, and she remembered getting a call at Factory Square in Mystic about 10 years ago.

“I show up and the fire department guys are standing outside,” Marshall said. “I said ‘I gotta get in.’ ‘You don’t want to go in there.’

“I knocked on the door. ‘Hello, what’s going on?’ My son, Nick, is there. He says, ‘Mom it’s not good.’ ‘I know it’s not good or I wouldnt be here.’”

Marshall has seen it all and still does.

“A full moon is bad. It’s very bad,” she said. “The psychs come out. Things happen. Anybody in this business will tell you a full moon is bad news.”

Just don’t call her an ambulance driver.

“If there’s one thing that will make me turn my toes, it’s calling me an ambulance driver,” she said.

“I found my niche,” she said. “I couldn’t sit at a desk all day. I’d go crazy. Every call is different. I’m only with patients for a certain amount of time, maybe an hour and a half. You may have to go above and beyond. We’re not usually a grab-and-go operation. Most of my patients love me. Not all of them but most. ... It’s a fascinating field. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

o.poole@theday.com