AUBURN — The son was late for a visit to his 80-year-old mom’s house in North Carolina. Adult sons are, of course, allowed to be late. But it was so out of his punctual character. Mom picked up the phone and dialed 9-1-1.

Buffy Gammon put out an interstate East Coast alert on the local man, something she didn’t have to do; the woman’s concern just really struck her. Police found him the next day at a North Carolina McDonald’s, held up by minor car trouble.

“They’re like, ‘Your mother’s looking for you,’” Gammon said. The elderly mom phoned back grateful, relieved.

It’s a call that stands out in almost 11 years of dispatching.

Gammon’s is a familiar voice heard over the scanner most afternoons out of the Lewiston/Auburn 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Center. She’s nearly always straight to the point with, sometimes, the slightest bit of humor or edge.

“I am my father’s child and that’s the way it is,” said Gammon, 39. “Don’t ask if you don’t want to know — I’m going to tell you.”

Two days a week Gammon is shift supervisor. Other days she rotates with the rest of the crew between Lewiston and Auburn police and fire and Poland Fire and Rescue.

Some calls, people are in dire straights. Some are markedly less pressing, asking for a phone number, for instance.

“This is like Christmas. You never know what you’re going to get, ‘Let’s open the box,’” Gammon said. And yes, she gets that her description might sound a little funny: “You can’t be wired right to do this job.”

She’s director of the center’s emergency medical dispatching program. At her side, next to a bay of computers, is a rack of flash cards that cover things like choking, stabbing, convulsions and falls, anything she might need to talk someone through. In off-hours, Gammon is a longtime volunteer emergency medical technician for Buckfield and Turner rescues.

A former Ames loss prevention officer, she’s dispatched long enough to spot trends.

Craziness during the full moon? “It’s fact, not fiction,” Gammon said.

Summer is the busiest time of her year. Think about a 9-1-1 frequent dialer too much and somehow they know — and they’ll be calling back.

For fisticuffs weather, “Humidity is worse than heat — fight, fight, fight, fight,” Gammon said.

And, the older the caller, the bigger the emergency, the easier to talk down.

She admits to a “soft spot” for seniors. After helping the North Carolina woman track down her son, that mom insisted, “You have to visit me.” It happened that Gammon was already planning a trip to the area, so she did.

“She was just so excited, ‘Oh, you’re so cute,’” Gammon said. “Always a bad situation, but you meet some nice people.”

Know someone who everyone’s heard of? We’re always looking for ideas. Contact staff writer Kathryn Skelton at 689-2844 or [email protected]