Respect your elders

I was raised up with the mind set you respect your elders, even the grumpy ones. Let's face it there are some grumps. I don't know why I'm always so surprised when I encounter one. They have most likely always been that way or perhaps started out kind hearted but life hardened them over time. Often I just assume when I see a grandmother figure that they are sweet, kind and tender hearted. I am left baffled when they are rude or cruel.
What happened today that I am even writing about such a subject? Our family had a chance to visit Wellsville New York this weekend. In Wellsville resides most of my family, including my dear Grandma. We had a wonderful weekend visit and today headed home with our little munchkins. We stopped at a rest area just inside the Ohio border. My little tots and Mommy took a trip to the restroom. I of course used the large stall since there were three of us and all the other smaller stalls were being used. Bri went first while she was on the potty I noted the stall had no toilet paper so by then the other stall opened up and I grabbed enough toilet paper for us. After the kids were finished I took my turn. When I opened the door to our stall an elderly woman with a walker now stood there. I offered a meaningful sorry for her wait. Only for her to accussingly gripe to me that we had no buisness being in there! I was at a loss for words. I just hurried the kids to the sink and proceeded to wash hands. While at the sink another older woman was kind to us and fussed over my children and talked about traveling with her grandkids. All the while inside I was still shaken by the woman with the walker. I knew we had done nothing wrong. There was no sign saying that stall was handicap only. Often the larger stalls even carry changing tables for little kiddos. The only peace I found was as we got miles down the road when I realized the grumpy old lady went to the bathroom stall with no toilet paper! I felt a little better after that thought. Just a side note: If she had not been so rude I bet I would have remembered to mention there was no toilet paper in the stall!