Another Riverside Story
Previously I had posted about Riverside, California. It’s where I live and I stated that it has the weird distinction of being the biggest small town in the country. Live here a while and you’ll always be bumping into someone or hearing something about someone you know. Here is what happened today.
My wife never follows the news or reads the paper during the day, she’s to busy planning her lessons for her students. Our routine is that when she comes home I fill her in and tell her what’s happening in the world. Today was parent night at her school so she came home later than usual, about 8:30 P.M.
I told her about the biggest breaking story in the country right now, Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 in 1991 when she was snatched from her school bus stop in Lake Tahoe. She ended up being a sex slave for her captor for 18 years and fathered two children by him. It’s a really horrible story. It destroyed the victim’s family and the mom ended up living in Riverside.
“Riverside!” said my stunned wife. She ran to the computer and pulled up the news on Yahoo.
“Oh My God! That’s #####’s niece!”
She was trying to control herself and hold back tears because she was very close to this person who is a colleague.
I just can’t believe how small Riverside is sometimes.
Goodness me. It’s always slightly startling when something like that happens close to home but much much worse when it’s someone you know. I hope your wife, Jaycee’s aunt and Jaycee will all come out of it ok. I suspect not for Jaycee at least but I hope she gets the support she needs.