Dear editor,

It was the last day of the summer holidays this past week. My grandchildren and I decided to spend the day together fishing at a local lake out of town. Due to the heat of the day, the fishing was poor, and although all we caught was a sunburn, my grandson managed to 鈥榗atch and release鈥� three small perch.

On the way home, we were talking about the great day we had together when the flashing lights of a police car appeared in my rearview window.

鈥淒o you realize,鈥� the officer said, 鈥渢hat you just passed me on the highway doing 110?鈥�

鈥淵es,鈥� I said, 鈥淚 thought that was the speed limit.鈥�

鈥淣ot when I have my lights flashing and have pulled someone over,鈥� he noted 鈥� a violation that the officer said could result in a ticket and a three-month suspension of my licence. As it happened, the day ended on a positive note with a teaching moment for both this grandmother and her grandchildren.

I had often pulled over for emergency vehicles but had not realized that I was to move over to the left-hand lane, or slow down to 50 when a police officer had someone pulled over for a ticket.

In return, my grandchildren talked about how kind the police officer was for catching and releasing their grandmother - a story I was sure they could hardly wait to tell their father (my son) when they got home.

When I told my husband (who is now 94) about being stopped he recalled serving as a police officer many years ago in England and commented, 鈥淭hat is police work at its best!鈥�

So in closing, this letter comes with a big note of thanks to the police officer who let this grateful grandmother 鈥榦ff the hook,鈥� so to speak, for what could have been a very costly speeding violation!

Christine Welch,

Comox Valley