Jean McGuire won’t ever stroll alone in Franklin Park once more after she was attacked there by a knife-wielding stranger practically every week in the past.
“I’ve never, in 91 years, not felt safe walking in the streets of Boston, day or night,” stated McGuire in a convention room at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “Never. And now I will never go up there to the park alone again.”
The 91-year-old civil rights chief made the remarks at a press occasion Tuesday, reflecting on how her dwelling metropolis has modified, as she was making ready to be launched from the hospital following therapy of her a number of accidents.
McGuire — a Boston-born educator who cofounded METCO, the nation’s largest voluntary college desegregation program, and was elected as the primary Black lady on the Boston School Committee in 1981 — underwent surgical procedure and has been recovering on the hospital since she was stabbed within the park whereas strolling her canine final Tuesday night time.
Though she nonetheless has restoration forward, her household stated, seeing her make it by means of this at her age and get to go house is a “blessing.”
Her attacker has not but been recognized or situated.
“We want to ask our community to stand up for Jean. If you know anything, if you saw anything, even if you don’t think it matters, please call the Crime Stoppers line,” stated McGuire’s nephew Ronald Mitchell. “Our community needs to stay safe, and it’s important that we stand up for our community, we stand up for Jean.”
Community members wishing to offer data can anonymously name the Crime Stoppers quantity at 1-800-494-TIPS or textual content “TIP” to 27463 (CRIME).
McGuire’s household additionally introduced the “Jean McGuire Educational and Health Fund,” created by means of the Boston Foundation to “honor her legacy of supporting and improving the lives of young people in Greater Boston.”
“This issue of putting money into weaponry instead of into homes, and roads, and healthcare, and dental care, and good food, grass and trees, you know, animals — things that make you happy — it’s a misuse of our wealth and our power,” stated McGuire. “I’d like it to see it go for the good instead of — for life, not death. It’s always got to be for life. It’s got to be for the future. Because you don’t know what tomorrow brings.”
McGuire and her household profusely thanked the hospital and everybody who’d supplied help after the incident.
The household is especially “extremely, extremely grateful,” nephew Mark Williams stated, for the 2 younger people who noticed McGuire on their means again from the Boston Lights at Franklin Park Zoo and known as for assist.
“Both of them truly saved her life,” stated Williams.
“You’re angels without wings, I’ll tell you that,” McGuire answered to a query about what she would say to the rescuers. “Their parents should be so proud that they cared enough to get help for somebody laying on the street bleeding.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”