No thanks!

I was out today and managed to find myself speaking to a little old lady that lived on the top floor of a housing estate. She said she was now alone and liked to go for a walk. Since the elderly residents had passed and the young families had moved in gone were the days where women cleaned their doorsteps, flower beds were a thing of the past and here evening walks started and ended with the dreaded stairs. Her hips struggle with stairs but she insisted on going for an evening walk.
Often the stairwell was dirty, urine and sometimes worse. Recently these stairwells have been occupied by teenagers, shouting, swearing and being boisterous. They smoke and throw each other around fighting, she's scared she's going to get knocked over or robbed, after all why would you wear a scarf across your face...
She's lonely, she's scared of these stairs, she can't be moved from her little flat and but if truth be known she doesn't want to be. What she wants is to go on an evening walk, to be safe in her home and that includes the stairwell to her housing estate.
While taking my break I visited her again, I went with her for that evening walk and returned her home safe and well.

I approached the teenagers, what a lovely bunch of young men! They were playing cards in the shelter from the rain. They lived in the block opposite but moved from there as a woman on the ground floor had just had a baby and they didn't want to disturb them. One got very upset when I explained why I was talking to them. Another started instantly picking up the cans and rubbish. It could have gone horribly wrong but it was a lucky day!

I didn't have my camera today but took this on my iPhone, I wanted something to remember this day so I took a picture of the view when she opens her door.

I'm not asking anyone to go walk an old lady or put in a flower box, what I'm asking is to teach your children when they see an old lady coming quiet down a bit, take down the hood, move aside and let her pass, maybe smile and say good evening. Our beautiful intelligent teenagers are scaring old ladies!