I’D like to share with the readers of this paper an incident that happened to my young daughter, Amber, in the Saxon Square toilets the other day.

While myself, my mum and my younger daughter were using the facilities Amber was washing her hands.

An elderly woman ordered my daughter out the way, used them herself then demanded she resume washing her hands. Her manner was so rude and unpleasant that it reduced my little girl to tears.

It was perhaps fortunate for this woman that, by the time I extracted the story from my still sobbing daughter she was long gone!

I just find it somewhat ironic, in a day and age where we hear so much about how rude and uncontrollable young people are, that a woman of such advanced years could behave in such a way.

At nine years old Amber knows that to upset and belittle someone younger and more vulnerable than yourself is nothing short of bullying.

She has two younger siblings and frequently treats them with kindness and patience.


SUZANNE JACKSON, Norris Hill, Bitterne Park, Southampton