Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 2/7/2010 (3936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
I attended an evening course at the Planetarium and was waiting for my bus after dark, all alone, outside the shelter on Main Street, when an inebriated male approached me. Though I walked away from him time and again and told him to go away and leave me alone, he followed me closely and continued with his improper ramblings. During a pause in this frightening encounter, a man and a little boy appeared just as a bus approached the stop. The young boy ran towards it, looked back and said. "Come on, Dad. This is ours." From some distance away, the father glanced over at me and replied to the protesting boy, "It’s OK, son. We’ll take the next one." I was quite shaken from the experience, but to my great relief, the presence of the father and son discouraged any more approaches from the other man and he left. My bus eventually came. As I climbed the stair, it finally dawned on me that the father, still at a discreet distance, had made his decision to miss his bus based on concern for my safety. I turned then to the father, nodded once my understanding and said simply, "Thank you." This was far from the immense gratitude I was feeling for his protection and his kindness. Germaine Gougeo