Dear Editor:

I don’t usually write letters like this, but something has been bothering me for quite some time and now is the best time to let people know instead of just talking about it in my little circle.

Four years ago, I went shopping the morning after Thanksgiving with my daughter just like I had for many years – it was tradition. You get dressed in your favorite Christmas shirt for the first time of the year and you get up in what seems like the middle of the night and catch the Christmas sales. Well,that particular year, my daughter was 7 1/2 months pregnant with her first child so we were even more excited than usual. Our first stop was of course, Wal-Mart. We stood outside waiting like everyone else until the doors opened. Then it became a nightmare. Grown men and women were pushing and shoving with their buggies. My daughter got hit more than one time in her stomach and never even got an excuse me or anything. I just want those rude people to know – my grandson’s name is Lane and you can take credit for abusing not only a pregnant woman, but also her unborn child. And to answer your next question – no I never got back in that chaos again. A sale is not worth the lack of human kindness that was shown that morning. This was not over shelter or food people – this was for toys and electronics.

This year at the Christmas parade was another example. How many people that attended that parade from the ages of 14 to 65 can say it was their first parade? And then think – how many children from the ages of 1 to 8 could way it was their first? How many people do you think shoved a child out of the way so they could see a particular person or float? If I remember correctly, we were taught in school on how to line up for the shortest and smallest to be in front and the tallest in the back – what happened? This is just another example of the lack of human kindness.

And last – and yes the least. This week I was leaving the hospital after visiting my mother and it was getting dark and it was cold and of course I had to park on the lower parking lot and I was in a hurry. Needless to say, I am clumsy from start to finish, but on with my story – I was crossing the street where the emergency room is and you go by the big wall to go to the parking and I fell. Face it, if you are clumsy you cannot fall gracefully either. I fell for awhile trying to catch myself. No it didn’t work. Both my knees hurt so bad and I was trying not to cry. (Most of us have been there).

But the next thought in my mind after my initial shock was how many people saw me and I am so embarrassed. Well, several people did see me and not one acknowledged what happened. I even had an EMT drive by while I was trying to get up and she just looked at me and drove by. You know who you are.

On my way home, driving alone in my car I started thinking about all of this. You don’t want to be embarrassed, but you want someone to care enough just to check to see if you are alright. You know, I was already at the hospital and very close to the emergency room – how much would it have put someone out to make sure I didn’t need to go back in? So yes, I got my feelings hurt.

I will leave on this note. I have been telling everyone I wanted some ‘hurry’ for Christmas for my two grandsons.You know, “Hurry Lane, it is raining. Hurry Peyton, we are running late” but as Lane explained to me you can ask for more than one thing – so I think this year not only will I be asking for a little extra hurry I will be asking for some long lost human kindness for Troup County and the City of LaGrange because it is not what happens everywhere else. It is here right where we live and where we call home.

Rhonda S. Wilson

LaGrange