I spoke to my mother on the phone tonight. She recently returned home after visiting her parents. My mother is 62 years old; her mother is 84. My grandmother is tiny, probably around 5'1". She has two bad shoulders and, as she's 84, is starting to develop some dementia and is starting to lose her equilibrium. In other words, she's a tiny old lady who is confused and wobbly.
So, my mom took my grandmother grocery shopping. The store they went to is a large Wal-Mart-esque store, only regional. There are two entrances to this store - one by general merchandise and one by grocery. Each entrance has six doors - three marked for enter, three marked for exit. My mom and my grandma were walking towards the exit. My mother now follows closely behind my grandmother, ready to catch her if she falls. So Grandma's going out the door closest to the cash registers, Mom's about six inches behind her. As they're walking through the door, a 6'2", heavy set, 30ish man decided my mom and my grandma were going too slow. Instead of taking literally two steps to the next door, he shoved past my Grandma going through the exit door. Literally pushed past her and wedged himself between the door frame and her cart, very nearly knocking her over. My mom, who always talks like a kindergarten teacher, yelled "Butt-head!" at him. The guy turned around and glowered at her. My mother, being angry this man almost hurt her mother, simply, "Yes. You. I'm talking to you." Then this bastard stepped towards my mother. Stepped towards my 62-year-old mother, with her bad knees. And her 84-year-old mother. Now, my mother does not look tremendously intimidating. She's 62. She's extremely heavy. She has trouble walking. She has had four surgeries for rotater cuff injuries. She looks like a harmless older lady. However, my mother also survived an abusive marriage. In fact, she threw her bastard of a husband out. She didn't leave. She threw him out. My mother has been a teacher for 37 years at an alternative high school in a city that has consistently been ranked one of the five most dangerous cities in the country. When this woman gets mad, she is absolutely fucking terrifying. I mentioned she's had four shoulder surgeries? Each one of those injuries was from her literally physically subduing and/or restraining raging teenagers who were beating the Hell out of each other. So when a big-boned, 30 years younger, 10 inches taller than her man stepped towards her, my mother stepped towards him, looked him in the eyes, and dead serious and perfectly calm, said "Bring it, Little Boy." He turned and didn't quite run out the door, but exited pretty quickly.
Two take aways from this. First: My mom's fucking awesome. Second: WTF, dude? What the fuck? Nothing about this behavior was necessary. He was literally less than an inch from assault. If he had actually bumped into this 84 year old, physically unstable woman, she would have fallen. If she had fallen, she almost certainly would have been injured. And then try to physically intimidate them when it was pointed out her was being an asshat? All because he's too rude and lazy to walk two steps further? Literally, two steps. I can't even justify taking the time and energy to explain why none of this is okay. If you need it explained, just go live in a cave. Never have human contact again. Seriously.
You know, what? One more take away. My mom is *really* fucking awesome. Every day. Not just because of this. Because of everything.
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