Ever experienced racism?
It’s the Summer of 1992, and I am going about my daily business. We have just moved in with. Grandma spends the majority of her time in her bedroom watching the Gee Gee on the Television. Now and again there is a roar from the spectators watching the race. We have closed the door to the bedroom where she is sitting and watching it. You see Grandma is rather deaf.
Mum is busy cooking and my brother is playing computer games.
Now what I have not told you is this is a semi-detached house and both rooms are adjacent to the house next door.
Suddenly the doorbell goes. So I approached the door and opened it. Standing in front of me is a hunchback elderly lady with a frown on her face looking irate.
Me: Hi Mrs C, What can I do for you?
Her: Would you mind turning your television down?
Me: Which One?
Her: No wonder I cannot hear myself think
Do you know when the penny drops?
Up to this point, I had no idea just how thin the walls between the houses were.
And before I had a chance to apologize, She came out with this.
Her: We had no trouble before you lot came. Why don’t you back to the Desert you came from?
You know when you think things cannot get any worse?
Just then my sibling happened to be walking up our driveway. I never expected her to react like this but what came out of her mouth shocks me to this day.
My Sibling: "Why don’t you go back to the grave you belong to?"
I was left not knowing what to say, I watched silently as the conversation turned uglier and more unpleasant.
That evening, I could not sleep. Grandma can’t help the fact she is deaf and maybe Mrs C was right, It is only because we have moved in that grandma is where she is.
Before Grandma would sit in the living room and that is in the detached part of the house.
The next day, I asked Grandma if she would consider moving her bedroom to the front of the house where there are no neighbors on the other side of it.
Grandma looked puzzled, so I explained the events that had led to this.
Grandma: Is my TV loud?
Me” Yes Grandma, it has been rather loud for ages.
Weeks went on like this, Grandma refused to move to the front room, I felt bad for Mrs C. So I convinced Mum to buy grandma headphones she could plug into the back of the television.
That seemed to work.
So you are probably wondering what happened with you and Mrs. C. Let’s just say over the years she mellowed a bit. We often saw her popping out for walks accompanying her husband in an electric wheelchair. Then shortly after that, she would be seen walking alone. That is when I plucked up the courage and said hello to her.
Slowly slowly, the hellos became more frequent. Until one day Mum said, Mrs C had been round and asked if she could have a word.
It turns out Mr C was on his last legs. Mum invited her round for tea and listened to her. We never spoke about that incident again.
She and I had the odd friendly exchange after my son was born and she walked past my house over the years until recently when mum was put on the end of care and I popped around to collect a few things, Mrs C spotted my husband and I leaving mum’s with something I painted.
She approached us both and exchanged a few pleasantries. She also took one look at the painting and said, Wow you did this? This is amazing.
®Trade Mark No: UK00003778364 Mark: iandyoumatter (Figurative) Owner: iandyoumatter ltd Class(es): 35,38,41,45
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