When news was developing about the attacks in Paris, France, that killed about 129 people, people with family and friends in the area wanted to make sure they were okay.
Mathilde Duflos, an exchange student studying psychology at Western University, is from Paris. She said that hours after hearing about the attacks, she talked to her family on Skype to make sure they were safe. She added one of her cousins were in one of the bars where the shootings happened hours prior, and her grandparents lived nearby where they occurred.
Although Duflos’ family is safe, they are concerned. “They don’t really feel safe in France. It can happen anywhere and whenever. We don’t know when and where [it] is the next time, but we know that it’s not the only time.”
She added that she is grateful for the signs of solidarity around the world, including buildings all around the world, such as London City Hall, using red, white and blue lights for France. “Our city, Paris was almost dead,” she said, “It was like we stopped to live, but other countries lived for us.”
The student said that talking about what happened in Paris is important, especially since she’s been affected, but so is talking about similar tragedies that happen around the world. “A death is a death, wherever it happens.”
