When you live in small towns there are moments that remind you of exactly why you do. Valerie Franklin and her daughter Logan experienced one such moment recently.
They had just finished eating dinner at Fenders Diner in Cornelia (great restaurant, by the way) and walked downtown to look at train cars and “hopefully see a train”.
That’s when they first saw him.
“When walking back towards the car we saw an officer in his vehicle come by us rather quickly. A few minutes later we were sitting by the depot having just seen a ‘real’ train when Logan and I spotted what we assumed was another police car,” she writes on Facebook. Franklin says they waved at the officer and “to our surprise the officer came towards where we were”.
“He stopped and asked if we were the ones he’d seen earlier when he went by kind of fast. He apologized for going by us in such a hurry, but explained he was pursuing what he understood to be a person with a warrant,” she writes. “We told the officer we understood and knew that was just him doing his job. He then spoke directly to Logan which made her day.”
Franklin says Officer Jeremy Newsom got out of his patrol car and gave her daughter a police badge sticker. He “even took time to have his picture made with Logan,” she says.
Franklin says that brief encounter made a big impression on her little girl. “She’s honestly talked about him all night,” her post reads.
The Hazel Grove Elementary School teacher took to social media to share the heartwarming story and to publicly thank Officer Newsom. She wraps up her post by saying, “Thank you for making our little girl’s night, and for working hard to keep our community safe.”
