So when a conversation begins with 'Don't worry - he's going to be fine', you know it's not going to be a good one.

My nephew was hit by a car on Saturday night.

And yes, he will be ok.

Eventually.

My nephew has had a pretty rough bout of luck in his young life. He's 27 now but this was his 4th encounter with a car and the most serious. The other 3 were in his young teenage years when he was a little careless with a skateboard.

When B was 10, he encountered a schoolyard bully. It is a story that still makes my blood boil. He was beaten within an inch of his life by an 11 year old boy using a piece of rebar as a weapon. He spent many weeks in the hospital nursing internal injuries, while the psychopathic beast of a child wasn't even charged because he was under the minimum age of 12.

When B was about 15, an over-exuberant boy at school jumped on him from the stage at the school and broke his thigh in 3 places. He still has plates in his leg from that one.

B is a mild mannered boy, well - young man now, who the fates have just decided to give him a bit of battering. If there is ever someone who can be in the wrong place in the wrong time, it is my nephew.

The most recent episode is by far the most disturbing, and while he'll be ok, I am thanking everything and anything this morning that we still have him. Thank GOD he's ok.

Late Saturday night, he was biking home from a friends and was accosted by some, well young punks for lack of a better term. They started yelling insults and names as B rode by. He unfortunately got caught up and stopped to yell back at them. Maybe not a wise choice, but who hasn't turned around and mouthed back at someone?

Well, one of the punks pulled a knife. Too many kids have lost that fight, and B knew he had no choice but to run. He ran right into the street. A van was coming through.

I just cringe and my heart aches thinking of the terror that must have been in his mind at that time. B has lost friends, most notably Jesse Cadman this way.

The van hit him and sent him flying. The man driving the van came out and was very aggressive. Ben took one look to the punks on the curb, and this man who was yelling and decided his best chance was to get home. Fast.

He got home, bleeding and in pain and told my brother he'd been hit.

At the hospital, he was diagnosed with broken ribs and had a gash sewed up in his side. 22 stitches. Not a small one. He's bruised, sore and very down. But he's alive.

Unfortunately, because he left the scene and there were no real witnesses, there is not a lot the police can do.

That same night, in another part of Vancouver, a boy was stabbed and killed. It makes me very thankful that B is alive and here. But at the same time, I am so very sad that the world - and our very neighbourhoods - have degenerated into something so dark.

My sister in law remarked how concerned she is for the world and for the children growing up now. What will it be like in another 10 years, if this is what we are living in now?