NEW HAVEN -- Hundreds turned out to say farewell to city firefighter Linda Cohens Saturday morning at a Pentecostal church on Orchard street.
Cohens died under mysterious circumstances last Sunday. She was found in front of her Hamden house with a traumatic head injury, but so far, the medical examiner hasn't determined how the injury occurred.
“It was a shock. When I read it in the paper, I really couldn't believe it because Linda was in good shape,” said Rick Taylor, a retired firefighter. “She was a great lady and you loved to go with her anywhere she went.”
Firefighters from New Haven and the greater New Haven area came to the service in uniform, black drapes covered engine 16, the truck Linda worked on. Cohens was also a paramedic.
Longtime friend Octavia Ricks remembered how she and Linda met, she told us Cohens was her first friend in New Haven. “I was new in town. We met at a bar.” Ricks said, “She always greeted you with a hug and a smile.”
Well-wishers have made donations to a scholarship for Cohens grand-daughter.
