Elderly Civil Rights Activist Stabbed Multiple Times Thanks Two ‘Angels’ Who Saved Her

The 91-year-old civil rights activist who is recovering after being stabbed multiple times in a Boston park is thanking the “two kids” who helped save her life.

On Tuesday, Jean McGuire was released from the hospital one week after she was targeted in an unprovoked knife attack inside Franklin Park, CBS News reports. McGuire was stabbed on October 11 while walking on a path near Seaver Street sometime between 7:55 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

Her attacker fled the scene and there have been no arrests. But McGuire is thanking the “two kids” for saving her life following the stabbing.

“I’ve never in my 91 years not felt safe walking the streets of Boston day or night ever. And now I will never go up there to the park alone again,” McGuire said.

“It’s in my head that it wouldn’t be wise. It’s a different time.”

McGuire, a Boston schools pioneer who was the first Black woman elected to the Boston School Committee and served as a former director of the METCO desegregation program, used her self-defense skills to fight off her attacker.

“I didn’t have any words. I used the training that I had, which I did with my staff to protect myself when somebody attacks my body,” she said. “That was my foot and my knee and it almost ruined my arm.”

McGuire is thanking the two young people who came to her aid following the unprovoked knife attack.

“Two kids. I don’t know who they are. They were going to the light show. They were coming from the light show — I was walking toward there,” she explained.

“They’re angels without wings I’ll tell you that much.”

“Their parents should be so proud that they cared enough to get help for somebody laying on the street bleeding,” she continued. “There’s a lot I don’t remember. I don’t let it bother me now. You all took care of me and so you move on but you do have to be prepared to protect yourself in the future.”