Friday March 12, 2010

      Its 7:30 pm, it’s raining, dark and gloomy and my husband and I are sitting in our car waiting for an OPP officer to arrive.  

      We promised my sister in law that we would check her parent’s cottage in Sauble Beach for the winter months. On our weekly visit to the cottage we notice that there is a window broken and we immediately contact the police to report the incident.  

      I know, you are thinking, yeah, so what’s the big deal? This is a very common occurrence in Cottage County.  

      This is the same day that Constable Vu Pham’s wife and children had to say good-bye to their husband and father.  I had met Vu maybe once or twice as he was a good friend of my parents, and often stopped in to visit them.  

Again, you are thinking, yeah so what’s the deal? 

      When the first officer arrived, the first thing I noticed was that he wasn’t very old and I am pretty sure fairly new to the job, anyway, my husband and I showed the officer the broken window and at that time another officer was called in. As we waited in the car, the first officer told us that he was going to walk around the area to check for any other break-ins. All the cottages in this area were all closed for the winter months.

As he walked away into the darkness I could see his flashlight dancing in and out of the dark corners of the other cottages. The light faded as he went around one of the cottages. I began to feel very uneasy as I could not see this young officer anymore, and my imagination started to get the best of me. My first instinct was to get out of the car and go find him. You see, I was frightened for the officer.  

      You are probably saying to yourself, “well that is his job” and I agree with you, but, Constable Pham was also doing his job and lost his life doing it.

I don’t think about whether or not I am going to make it home after my days work, and I am sure this is not something that crosses your mind as you head off to work.    

      I wasn’t very old, but I remember one evening when we had been in bed for quite a while, we heard some talking downstairs. So of course being nosy, my siblings and I were at the top of the staircase trying to hear what was going on. My parents were talking to a woman and her children, and they all seemed very upset. We recognized the voices as these people were friends of our family.

As I found out next morning the woman and her children had lost there husband and father in a shooting. He was a police officer who was called in on a domestic dispute. Yes, he was doing his job.