Mind Blown on Throw Back Thursday!
In case you missed it, there is a trend on social media to post an old picture of yourself on Thursday. It's known as "Throw Back Thursday" #TBT.
Today I posted this picture: ( I know, the hair! OMG! Feel free to laugh :)
Out of the blue, a few hours after posting it, a woman tweeted to me "You look familiar, did you ever hang out in Belmar?" Belmar is a beach town here in New Jersey. I let her know that I have always hung out in Belmar and still do now! It's "my" beach. She told me her parents used to own a house in Belmar on 11th Avenue. I said I used to live on 11th Ave for a short while! Small world!! She then told me her parents rented the top floor of their house to some girls.......ok? You get where this is going?? YES! This woman recognized me from my Throw Back Thursday picture!!! I shared her parents top floor apartment with my friend! She then tweeted my friend's name!!!!
I said, "Wow, you really have a great memory!!! How did you remember me from an old photo?" (I really didn't remember her, I think she is younger than me, and I know I met her, but I don't really remember her) She then went on to recount a really scary night. In the summer when I lived in Belmar there had been a string of break-ins and rapes. It is not unusual for beach houses to have some unique design features. Our apartment was the top floor. My bedroom was in the back the of the apartment and had a backdoor with stairs down to the yard. One night, I remember hearing some one come in that back door, into my bedroom. It was terrifying. My instinct was to pretend I was asleep. I don't know if I was too terrified to move, still thinking/hoping it was a dream or just trying to will away the entire scenerio....but I don't think I even drew a single breath, I stayed completely still...next thing I knew, I was hearing a lot of commotion and then banging at our front door.
It turns out the landlord's daughter was home downstairs and saw the man trying to break in downstairs. She put on all the lights and came running up to us. She had actually seen the creep! I guess he also tried to get in downstairs. The details at this point are fuzzy for me. But they are not at all for this woman!
She told me on Twitter, she remembered me from that night!! She recognized that picture I posted!!! (Really, what are the odds? It's not like I tweet with her regularly, yet she recognized a 25-year-old photo on Twitter!!!)
She told me she ended up going to the police department to pick the guy out of a line up and the police confirmed he had broken into many homes to watch women sleep and that he fit the profile of a rapist.
Thank God for this woman! She saved me! Had she not turned on all the lights and made all that commotion, well, God only knows.
I am so glad that my Throw Back Thursday photo reunited me with my hero from 25 years ago!!!
Do you have a great "Small World" story?