The granny from hell harassed neighbourhood
The London Appeal Court yesterday reduced an elderly 81 year-old-woman’s jail sentence from 6 months to four months. Dorothy Evan’s offence :harassing her neighbours, shouting abuse and hitting them with her walking stick.
The woman arrived at the Appeal court in a wheelchair with a plaster over one eye and using a hearing aid to listen to the proceedings.
Her lawyer said, ” She has profound difficulty in accepting any blame for what she had done although she was totally sorry to find herself in the situation she does“.
In commenting on the case, Judge Roderick Denyer said, ” Old age is not a license to disregard the law or the requirements of decent behaviour towards others in the community“.
My comment:
Living with the elderly is not the easiest thing in the world. Care givers will know what I am talking about. Their spirit is willing to do so many things. But their body is a shell of what it once was. The phrase over the hill becomes a reality and the elderly looks for more and more diversion in an otherwise arid and deserted landscape. Most of them them are partially or completely dependent on others in some way or other by then.
They become totally alert to minute changes in their environment and in their bodies. For many, unspoken though it may be : the fear of the unknown - inevitable death at some point in the future becomes a very real thing. Some of them even cry as they look back and realize what they are going to leave behind.
Some reflect on wasted lives while others rely more and more on spiritual matters in an effort to console, cheer,strengthen and fortify themselves emotionally for the inevitable moment. They know they don’t have to worry about the food they eat, smoking, exercise, or be too particular in their appearance. Like a matriach said, ” If I don’t eat this chee cheong fun, how am I going to eat it when I am dead and gone ( na si tong kim guo bo chiak chee cheong fun, si eh si ham mi to bo, cheng beng lu gia ho wa..gua eh chiak meh )? “.
What will you be like as an elderly person? What will your life be like? Ultimately, we all reap what we sow.
