Slateford Road tragedy: They seemed like a family straight out the Brady Bunch

THERE are people who you can meet just once, in a fleeting moment of time, a slight crossing of paths, and yet the impact of that brief encounter stays with you forever.

I can say that without hesitation about Theresa Riggi and her three beautiful young children, Luca, Austin and Cecilia.

It was Hogmanay 2009 and I, my husband and three kids went for dinner to Frankie & Benny's in South Queensferry.

As we were ushered to our table, we were given a knowing smile by a blonde lady next to us. It was the kind of exchange by parents who know the difficulties of getting out to a restaurant with three young kids.

"I know what it's like," she said in an American twang. "It's hard work having three."

As we scrabbled under the table to entice our eldest son out and into his seat, her boys amused our six-month-old as he sat in his high chair. "Look at the baby mama," they chorused in US accents.

It was hard not to look at them, they seemed so out of place. The kind of family who seemed straight out of an episode of the Brady Bunch.

They seemed so wholesome - all that was missing were freckles. The boys were dressed identically in shirts and ties, their matching haircuts as if they'd been to the barber that day; their sister in a beautiful dress, her long hair loose around her shoulders.

Their mother too was immaculate. Not a hair out of place, and so well dressed and made-up that my assumption was they were all off to some swanky party once they'd dispensed with their burgers and chocolate sundaes.

Given the accent, we asked if they were here on holiday (staying in the Dakota, we assumed). "Yes," she said - there was no hint that that holiday was just from Aberdeen and not Alberquerque.

That was it. They soon paid their bill and left and we carried on. It was just a moment in a restaurant.

I didn't know them, I didn't know her. But they will now be in my thoughts always.