Thank You to Garrett Styles.

I sit here stunned staring at the picture of York Regional Police Constable Garrett Styles. I heard his name on the news, but it wasn't until I saw his picture that I knew it was him.It was strange how someone I hadn't seen since high school graduation in Newmarket could come flooding back so quickly and vividly.

I am greatful for the brief time I was lucky enough to have known Garrett. Our community was very lucky to have a person like him as an Officer, we are poorer today without him. I ache when I think of his young family so eerily similar to my own. Thank you to his wife Melissa for sacrificing her husband and father of their children, her life will be forever changed. The difficulties she faces raising children will now be magnified, for there will no longer be an easy fix for those tense moments with a two year old for which only "Daddy" will do.

I am saddened for the loss of their father, and for the loss of what was most certainly one of the most rewarding relationships they will ever know. Garrett has given up a lifetime of moments with his children to keep us safe, I wish it was me he stopped instead. A smiple ticket is all it would have been, but I guess there isn't anything routine about any routine, traffic stop or otherwise.