Vacationing Couple Returns to Find Pride Flag Stolen, Now Dozens of Neighbors Fly Flags in Support

House Was Egged, Neighborhood Kids Distributed Pride Flags 

Cari and Lauri Ryding (photo) returned home from vacation to find the Pride flag they had put up in honor of the Orlando Pulse victims had been stolen, and their Natick, Massachusetts house egged. 

“It really sent us reeling,” Cari told The Boston Globe. “It’s really is hard to feel someone hates you,” Cari also told local station WCVB.

Neighbors, when they heard, from a Facebook post the couple left, sprung into action. On Sunday, more than 40 houses received Pride flags that say “Peace,” and put them up on flagpoles, on fences, and on the sides of their homes.

“It’s wild,” Cari says, adding that now she just just fills “up with tears driving down the street.”

“The first thing when I heard about it: ‘Alright, I’m going to put up a flag. We should all put up flags,” neighbor Maura Gaughan said. “If people want to do that, they’re just not going to be welcome in our neighborhood,” David Mangan added. “I hope this is a good sign to that.”

Kids aged “5 to 16, they were all out on their bikes for an hour, delivering the flags,” Liz Mazzola told the local TV station.

“It just happened so quickly — the whole neighborhood said, ‘Get me a flag. Get me a flag. Get me a flag,’” neighbor Penni Rochwerger told The Globe. “If we can stop whatever hate is out there, I think that’s really important.”

23 years ago Cari moved into the neighborhood, which she loves. Ten years ago she and her husband separated, and four and a half years ago she married Lauri. 

“When I moved in four and a half years ago, I was embraced,” Lauri said. “Our relationship was embraced.”

The Globe adds that “Lois McGillivray, 85, who has lived on Strawberry Hill Road for 50 years, had one of the rainbow flags proudly displayed on her home on Monday.”

“I have never met anyone who would do what that person did to that house,” she said. “This is a place where nobody bothers anybody, no matter how you want to live, as long as you’re not digging up the garden and throwing the dirt in my yard.”

Neil Podolski said he wanted to fly a rainbow flag, as well, after hearing that the Rydings’ home had been vandalized. 

“It’s just not right,” said Podolski, who is Jewish. “Who’s to say tomorrow we don’t find a swastika on our house?”

Lauri says, “love conquers hate. Love wins. We win.”

Watch the video above from WCVB.

 

Image: Screenshot via WCVB
Hat tip:Towleroad