Editor,

Hello island community. I don’t have social media, so I’m trying this avenue instead. I just recently learned of “letters to the editor,” so let’s see what happens.

I’m a single mom, 30 years old and my son is 7. We’ve been on the island for three years, after fleeing from a violent home situation caused by my ex, which is why I don’t have social media. The island has been wonderful for us, but I am always worried that my son isn’t happy. He seems to be, but you know how moms are.

He loves the drums, and any time he sees a clip of a live band or a drummer on a commercial, he is glued to the screen. Most times he air-drums along. A few weeks ago, we were on the ferry and sitting upstairs. Thank goodness not many people were around that could be bothered, because he had my phone playing music and was air drumming right along.

All of a sudden, this mountain of a man appeared and had taken notice of my kid’s “drumming”. He was smiling and kinda bobbing along to the song. My son loved it, he had an audience! This man pulls out a pair of drumsticks, hands them to my son and says something like “show me what ya got little man!” What?! I have never seen him smile like that. I didn’t even know he could. Where did this man come from? Why did he even have drumsticks?! He obviously must play drums. Watching my son drumming along with real sticks and the biggest smile ever, really made me feel peace for the first time in years. This mystery man gave us fist bumps, told us to keep the sticks and thanked my son for the song. He did tell me his name but I guess I was too surprised to remember.

I just want to send out a thank you to whoever this man is. He is a very large man, well over six feet tall and maybe why his heart is so big. He’s like a big gorgeous musical Paul Bunyan. If you know him, thank him for us. This was something we needed more than anyone could have imagined.

Heather Collins

Freeland