Blog 2

         When I was a year old, my dad became a police officer for the Portland Police Bureau. I wasn't ever worried. His job didn't worry me, his stories didn't scare me. It wasn't until 5th grade when my dad was promoted to detective, the stories really began to scare me. This is when the stories went from minor traffic violations to people being killed or kidnapped we told. The story that sticks in my head is the story about a women throwing her two children off a bridge into a river. On May 23, 2009 a women named Amanda Jo Stott-Smith took her two children, 4 and 7 years of age, to the Sellwood bridge in Portland, Oregon. The Sellwood bridge is a highly traveled bridge in the city of Portland and like many others, we use this bridge to travel from once side of the city to the other. Every time we drive over this bridge, my dad like to say "Now imagine you're a 7-year-old and you we just woken up as you hit the cold Willamette River water. Then, in order to survive, you used you 4-year-old brothers dead body to stay afloat." This story has stuck with me for a couple of reasons. For one, falling off a bridge is a fear of mine and thinking of that happening to an innocent 4 and 7 year old is heart breaking. Second, I have a brother who is three year younger than me and the thought of losing him is devastating. Lastly, I think this story sticks in my brain simply because it is a horrifying image to imagine. A mother, who is suppose to love her kids, throwing them off a bridge and trying to kill them simple because she doesn't want her ex-husband to have them.