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COLIN MACLEAN: 'I'm waiting on a miracle'

A tear slid down her cheek.

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She wiped it away with the corner of a napkin before going back to fiddling with the pen and notebook on the table in front of her.

She had written some things down, she said, to help gather her thoughts.

We sat in the corner of a local coffee shop and the place was packed with people, laughing, talking, reading, eating and sipping drinks.

I don’t like doing interviews in public spaces; too many distractions, too much noise.  But we could not meet in her home. She did not feel safe there.

“You’re walking around that house wondering if it’s going to be set on fire,” she told me.

I will refer to my coffee companion as Amanda for the purposes of this article. It’s not her real name, but she is in the middle of trying to get out of what is left of a bad relationship and is afraid of her ex and those around him. There have been threats.

She needs to get out, but has hit a wall in her efforts to find someplace to go. There is a deadline, which is rapidly approaching. After that, she’ll be homeless.

She is afraid and believes she is out of options.

I just tell stories, I told her. I can write about her situation, but there is no guarantee that it will have positive results. I needed her to understand that.  She still wanted to speak – she did not know what else to do.

So we........

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