Last Tuesday night, Lieutenant Tabatha Merell of the Fredericksburg, Virginia, Sheriff's Office took part in the Santa Run 2022 community outreach program where she played the part of Mrs Claus. After the event, she was driving home and noticed a woman was leaning over the edge of a bridge and something didn’t seem right. So still dressed as Mrs Claus, Merell pulled over to see if she could help the woman.
“She had not only her upper body over the railing but she also had lifted her left leg and had it dangling over as well,” Merell recalls. “I knew it was an emergency, it wasn’t someone looking over the water.” She called for backup and was soon joined by Sergeant Aimee Lynch of the Fredericksburg Police Department. The two cops worked together and were thankfully able to talk the woman down from the railing.
Merell says the moment was a reminder that during the time of year when a lot of people are feeling hopeful, many people are still in pain. Merell and Lynch hope this story will be a reminder of how precious life is and the importance of letting people know that you care. Merell, for her part, is just glad that she came along that night. “Call it fate. Call it right place, right time, wrong attire,” she says. “There is a reason I went that route.”
Source: WTVR