vegas pic2

A North Bay woman and her husband are back from Las Vegas, having narrowly missed Sunday night’s mass shooting.

Stephanie and Jamie Silverthorn were at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival throughout the weekend and on Sunday.

They had to leave before Jason Aldean took to the stage, to get to the airport.

The couple was on board the plane when they learned some of the early details about what was happening.

From there they were deplaned, but later got back on, with the aircraft cleared to leave.

Stephanie says it was rattling to find out the scope of the attack.

“We were staying in that same hotel, and the area in the venue that we had been standing the last three days, had we been there we would have been in the worst possible spot in terms of the shooter’s access and in terms of difficulty in exiting the venue,” she says. “It felt very weird to think it could have been at any other moment and we wouldn’t have been safe.”

After they landed, they had a ton of messages from family and friends asking if they were ok.

Stephanie says they were very fortunate, but also says it’s an odd feeling.

“I had a message from my cousin saying ‘Poppa was looking out for you’ and you kind of feel like something was looking out for you, but at the same time that feels so awful, because you think then why wasn’t someone looking out for those other 600 people that aren’t ok,” she says.

59 people were killed in the shooting, including four Canadians.

527 people were injured.

Stephanie says this upcoming Thanksgiving will certainly have added meaning.

“A lot of time to pause and just reflect on how lucky we are to live, not only in the wonderful community that we live in, but to live in such a safe and stable country,” she says.

 

(Photos submitted)

Vegas pic1