Terror attack hits close to home for Okanagan couple and their daughter

For Mike Bullock and his wife Josephine, the terror attack in Manchester, England was a little too close for comfort.

“It was very, very close to where she was,” Bullock said.

The West Kelowna man is referring to his daughter Sarah Beth Keeley. Keeley is a musician who used to live in the Okanagan. She and her Canadian partner Gavin Sorochan are touring the United Kingdom. They had just arrived in Manchester the night before the terror attack.

Bullock said Keeley texted him immediately after the attack and spared him any distress.

“She said I want you to know that we are ok and at that point I had not even heard about the situation in Manchester,” Bullock said. “So fortunately she did pre-empt any of my nerves I might have had.”

Speaking via Skype to Global Okanagan Tuesday afternoon, Keeley said her show was just down the street from the arena that was bombed. As soon as the explosion went off, the venue Keeley was playing went into lockdown.

“You could hear helicopters and sirens everywhere,” Keeley said. “What went through my mind is that just like the Paris incident, that happened at a concert and there were also guns being used so will someone be flying around shooting into establishments and continue this rampage, you feel very scared.”

After a 90 minute lockdown, Keeley and the others were allowed back outside.

Keeley says she and Sorochan watched ambulances go in and out of the area for several hours. The pair said the shock of the situation is still setting in.

“It won’t feel quite the same,” Keeley said. “We love it over here but it won’t feel the same. Before it ever happens your mind is free and now you have a thing that you have to consider that it can actually happen to you.”