by Tamerie Shriver

The unselfish act of a stranger literally saved me from being raped, and maybe even killed.

Three years ago last September as I was doing my usual Saturday morning fitness walk, minding my own business, I was sexually assaulted.  My attacker ran up behind me, slammed me to the pavement face first, flipped me over and as he did he hooked his finger into the waistband of my skirt and ripped my clothing off.

Unfortunately, my panties went too, so I was naked from the waist down.  I fought and fought, to no avail.  Just as he was getting ready to punch me in the face to knock me out, I heard a voice yelling at him to stop, to get off of me.  Although he did not get off and run away, that distraction was enough to stopped him from hitting me.

My guardian angel (because that is EXACTLY what he was) kept coming, yelling the whole time, and still, my attacker did not run away.  He was then leaning over, yelling right in my attacker’s face to stop.  Finally, he got up and ran away and instead of running after him, my angel then helped me up and into the hotel to call the police.

He was a guest, in town for a meeting and had come out to run along the beach.  He told me later that when he first looked over my direction, he didn’t know what he was seeing, then he noticed I was naked and knew it was bad.  As people sometimes do, he could have chosen to look away, to go in the other direction and avoid getting involved.  Lucky for me, he came to my rescue and prevented, at the very least, a rape.

I thank God every day that He sent me this stranger, and that this stranger saved me from an even worse fate.  Even better, more than a year after my assault, I was able to contact and thank him for what I consider his heroic actions.

Tamerie Shriver