A Vignette About Ageist Harassment[1]
At
ten to one on Thursday morning, Pearl was awakened by a loud noise of something
hitting her roof. She got out of
bed, looked out the window and saw to young men walking away. She figured they were students ‘tanked up’, on their way home to nearby
university residences.
But
the next day she saw a brick on her roof beside some broken tiles and she thought, ‘ Oh no!’ For the miserable experience of being targeted by local children
might be happening again. “I felt sick when I saw that brick. I’ve
considered moving into seniors’ residences.”
Two
years previously, a group of 10-12 year olds mounted a series of dreadful
attacks, led by a particularly nasty boy from a neighboring house. They put stink bombs though her
letterbox, through eggs at her door, repeatedly rang her doorbell and ran away.
“Id
injured my knee gong up and down the stairs was hard, so I got to a point where
I didn’t bother answering the door.
They were forever taunting me.
I looked through the door window and there was such nastiness about
it. It was threatening, it was
awful. I felt under siege. When
you’re on your own and you’ve got to lock up and go to bed, think somebody’s
trying to get into your place—it was horrible.
Once
when they smashed hydrometer with led piping she ran after them, but they
defied her.
Ø
‘Why
did you do that?’
Ø
“Do
what?’
Ø
‘You
broke my glass!’
Ø
“It
wasn’t us
Pearl’s
daughter Lena, who lived nearby, contacted the local police, and the
instigator, already in trouble with other offenses, was moved elsewhere. Pearl
wonders if the attacks happened partly because of her age.
‘Some
of it’s just vandalism. But these kids also thought. “ She’s a silly old fool, She won’t run
after us.”
[1] Over thirty years ago along with Lawrence Prasad I began my
Journey of investigation of Ageism.
This current post was part of:
A Pilot Study on Ageism: The Unchallenged Prejudice. It seems like a long time ago.
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