When my 65-year-old mother, a kind-hearted waitress, became the object of daily ridicule by an abusive regular, I didn’t let it go. I got into an argument with him, and it was only then that the painful truth that neither of us had foreseen was revealed …
I never thought I would have to defend my 65-year-old mother from a bully, but life has a way of throwing surprises.
Mum had been looking for a job for months, fighting an unspoken prejudice against hiring those over sixty. When Frank, the cafe owner, finally gave her a chance, she sparkled like a Christmas tree.
The café itself wasn’t too attractive – just a cosy little place wedged between a bookshop and a launderette – but for Mum it was perfect.
‘Sarah, darling, you should see how happy people are when they have their morning coffee,’ she used to say to me during our weekly Sunday dinner.
Her eyes sparkled with joy as she spread meatloaf on our plates, as she had done every Sunday since her father died. ‘It’s like I’m giving them a little cup of hope to start their day.’
That was what my mum was all about. She could find poetry in a cup of coffee, meaning in a simple greeting.
Soon the regulars were calling on her services, drawn to her warm smile and genuine interest in their lives. She remembered the routine, the names of the children, the small triumphs and failures.
‘Do you remember that girl I told you about?’ asked Mum one evening, stirring sugar in her tea. ‘The one who was at the interview? ‘She came back today. Got the position! Said my talk this morning gave her confidence.’
I smiled, watching her glow with pride. ‘You’ve found your calling, Mum.’
But then something changed. I started having coffee at the diner before work every morning and I couldn’t help but notice that Mum’s spunk had disappeared.
She tried to hide it at first, smiling strainedly when I asked what was wrong. But I knew my mother too well. I noticed how her hands trembled slightly as she poured tea, how she lost interest in her favourite gardening.
‘There’s this man,’ she finally admitted one evening, wiping her hands with a dish towel. ‘He comes every single day.’
I waited, giving her a chance to continue. After ten years as a probation officer, I had learnt what silence was.
The kitchen clock ticked relentlessly in the background, marking every moment of her hesitation.
‘He’s in his early sixties, and he always sits at table seven. Everything I do is never right.’ Her voice became thin. ‘One minute the coffee is too hot, the next it’s too cold. The napkins are folded wrong. Yesterday he accused me of putting a fly in his glass. He made such a fuss that I cried in the bathroom.’
My blood began to boil. ‘Did he complain to Frank?’
‘No, no,’ Mum said quickly, smoothing her apron with trembling hands. ‘He just…makes remarks. Little remarks. But sometimes the way he looks at me…’ She shuddered slightly. ‘Like he wants me to screw up. Like he’s waiting for it.’
That night I lay awake and thought. In my career, I’ve dealt with all types of difficult people. I had also taken a lot of psychology courses, so I knew how to read people and how to deal with them.
My intuition told me there was something more going on here. I was determined to get to the bottom of it because no one treats my mum like this and no one gets away with it!
The next morning I arrived at Frank’s early, chose a corner table and waited.
He showed up at 8:15 sharp, scowling so much that the milk could curdle. I knew it was him by the way Mum tensed up as soon as she saw him stomping towards the table.
I pretended to work the phone, watching him over the rim of the coffee cup as he handed Mum her order. My heart ached at the way her hands trembled as she took the order.
Everything Mum said was true. He was picking on every detail of her service, contempt sounding in his voice.
‘The rim of this cup is stained,’ he announced loudly, holding it up to the light. ‘Don’t you check things like that?’
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ Mum apologised and quickly replaced the cup.
‘And these eggs are barely warm. Do you enjoy serving substandard food?’ He pushed the plate away as if it had insulted him.
With each criticism, Mum’s shoulders slumped lower and lower. I gripped the phone tighter, forcing myself to sit still. I needed to understand why he was targeting her specifically.
And then I saw it. The way his expression changed as she smiled at the other customers. The way his eyes followed her as she laughed with the young couple at table three. How his jaw clenched slightly when she gently encouraged a tense student.
This wasn’t about service at all. It was personal.
As he was about to leave, he muttered something to himself. Mum flinched as if he’d slapped her.
That was it. I’d seen enough.
‘Excuse me,’ I said, getting in his way. ‘May I speak to you? I’m the daughter of the woman you’ve been tormenting for weeks now. I’ve watched the way you’ve been treating her. And frankly, it’s disgusting.’
He scoffed, looking at me sneeringly. ‘And what are you going to do about it?’
‘For starters, I’m going to explain to you why you’re doing this,’ I said, keeping my voice even. ‘You’re not mad at my mum. You’re mad at yourself. You’re an angry, bitter person who can’t stand to see my mum’s joy and the way her kindness makes everyone around her smile. It reminds you of everything you’ve lost.’
His face flushed. ‘You know nothing about me!’
‘I know enough. You lost your wife last year, didn’t you?’
His face went pale, and I realised I’d hit the mark.
‘She was the only one who put up with you, wasn’t she? And now you’re taking your frustration out on a woman who’s just trying to make a living.’
I took a step closer, close enough to notice the slight tremor in his hands. ‘But I have news for you. You’re not going to get away with this anymore. It’s not fair, and I think deep down you realise that.’
‘After all,’ I continued, ’the man standing in front of me now can’t be the very man your wife married, because no one would put up with you for years if you treated a stranger like that.
His eyes lit up. Without a word, he sprang out, and the bell above the door jingled in time with his footsteps. The other visitors pretended to be absorbed in their breakfasts, but I felt their relief at his absence.
He did not appear the next morning or the following ones.
I began to hope that he had found himself another café. But on the third day, as I was sipping my morning coffee, he entered the café and went straight to my mum.
There was silence in the cafe. Then he pulled a bouquet of yellow daisies from behind his back and held it out to Mum.
‘These are for you,’ he said in a voice barely above a whisper.
Mum stared at the flowers, hesitant to take them. Her apron was flecked with flour from the morning’s baking, and a strand of silver hair had dislodged from under a barrette.
‘Your daughter was right,’ he continued, his voice trembling. ‘I lost my wife… three months ago. She was the only one who understood me. And now I don’t know how to live without her.’
He swallowed hard. ‘We didn’t have kids, and I’m… so lonely. I’m angry at the whole world. When I saw you, your kindness and energy… it reminded me of her. She was always so sunny…’
His hands trembled around the flower stems. ‘I’m sorry for treating you like that. My wife would be ashamed of me. I’m ashamed of myself.’
The whole café seemed to hold its breath.
Mum looked at him for a long moment, then put her hand on his shoulder. ‘I understand,’ she said softly. ‘Life isn’t always easy, and sometimes we forget to be kind when we’re hurt. But I forgive you.’
These days, he still came to Frank’s house every morning at 8:15. But now, instead of complaining, he and his mother discuss sixties music, swap stories about their favourite films, and sometimes just sit in comfortable silence.
Yesterday I even heard him laughing – a rusty sound, like a door opening after a long winter.
And my mum? She smiles again, a real smile that reaches her eyes. She told me last week that sometimes the people who need kindness the most are the ones who deserve it the least.
That’s my mum, who always finds light in the darkness.
