Hollister, CA

As I was picking up my husband just outside of Hollister, CA this woman came up and asked if we could give her ride to Watsonville, (a town about 30 miles away). She was over weight, older and dragging a big black suitcase, so I thought she looked pretty harmless and I let her in the car, against my husband's wishes. I told her I wasn't going her way but I would take her part of the way and she said anything was fine. She did seem a little odd so we tried not to talk to her. She didn't say too much but did tell us that she was coming from the Emmaus House, (which is a shelter for battered women in Hollister), and that she was on her way to the woman's shelter in Watsonville. I didn't ask any questions but was wondering if she was staying at these shelters or if she was just "preaching" to them. She handed my husband a flyer, (since I was driving), and told him to put it in my purse. Since she was so determined and specific my husband did what she asked. When my husband got out of the car to get her suitcase after we stopped, she put another flyer in my hand and insisted that it was for me and I needed to read it. As she left she muttered something about white sisterhood and white brotherhood...and I don't know what, we just wanted to leave. She and her flyer really struck us as odd so here I am two days later looking her up on the internet and I find that many others have shared our similar experience. From the description of her and the flyer, (which is so hard to make sense of), I believe this was Marilyn Gibbs. After reading this blog I told my teenagers that I did the wrong thing and no matter how harmless a hitchhiker may look they should never give a stranger a ride. I am glad my husband was with me because I think his presence was a deterrent causing her to stay fairly calm and quiet.