Heather, a loyal reader, recently commented on dairy farming which reminded me of my mother-in-law who grew up on a dairy farm. My husband brags she used to throw 100 lb. sacks of feed over her shoulder with no problem. Once when he was in high school he complimented her by telling her she was ‘as strong as an ox’. She didn’t take kindly to being likened to an ox. But he totally meant it as a compliment.
His favorite story of her is when she chased down a man who robbed her. Yes. Yes she did. She is not afraid to stick up for herself. I called her for the details and here they are as told to me over the phone just the other day.
“We had just moved to Stanford but I was still playing in a band in Harrisburg because they hadn’t had a chance to replace me yet and I didn’t want to leave them in a lurch. I played keyboard and sang vocals.
I would take the train from Penn Station to Harrisburg and one night I missed my train and had to take the bus. I was in the Port Authority bus terminal in NY, sitting with my suitcase and pocketbook on the floor between my legs waiting for the bus. Someone distracted me by talking to the person across the way, asking for a quarter or something. Meanwhile they (their accomplice) got in my pocketbook and took $50 and my bus ticket. The person across the way motioned what was happening but by that time the thief was running away. It was a man, but he was smaller than me (she is six foot).
It was late at night by that time and he ran upstairs in the station, but the lights were off up there and I was too afraid to follow him up by myself. He eventually came back down because I saw him and recognized him so I went and grabbed him (she doesn’t remember if she grabbed him from the back or by the shirt collar, but either way, she had him pinned).
By that time the cops were there and they didn’t know which one of us was the bad guy! They ended up believing my story but they still took me down to the station to make a statement. I remember seeing them (the thieves) in the station and they were shooting daggers at me with their eyes. There were two guys and a girl. The police told me later the girl had a loaded revolver in her purse.
The police took down my statement and then told me if I ever wanted a job to let them know!
The end.
Comments (14)
Go willa!
katie
Yeah, Willa rocks!
Sounds like quite the woman! You are blessed to have such a cool mother in law 😉
Wow!
Oh my gosh! What a woman! I guess it helps that she is 6′. I’m nearly 5′ and probably wouldn’t have the same result.
WTG!! mom. I can see her sitting there with her stuff between her feet. Must be a farmer thing I do the same ***grin***
Mom .. is and always will be a force to be reckoned with lol.
Sarah Ashley
Mom .. is and always will be a force to be reckoned with lol.
Sarah Ashley
wow that’s reallyyyy cool and impressive!
I won’t mess with your MIL, that’s for sure!!!
Haha, I’ve always heard the shortened version of that story. Good to get the details! Way to go Aunt Willa 🙂
This is MIL. Actually, it was just a natural reaction to get my “stuff” back. Guess I was young & crazy. Now, I’m like, oh, do you need some $, here, let me help you. Tee Hee, ages mellows us to be sure.
I wanted to let you know I finally got figured out what to order from the contest! I wrote about it in my blog if you are curious at all to see what I ordered, THANKS TO YOU!
i have a similar story about my mother in law here in hungary and her chasing the man through a huge market yelling in English and her broken hungarian. She is a rock star!