A Pennsylvania Mom Took Her Terminally Ill Son To See Santa, And Another Shopper Rudely Complained
A Pennsylvania mom took her dying son to see Santa Claus at a mall and was rewarded for her efforts with a nasty note from another shopper, WTXF-TV (Philadelphia) is reporting.
Nancy Coyne is the mother of 7-year-old Garrett. The young lad has a terminal illness, called Batten disease, that has robbed him of his muscle control and will eventually take his life. Most children diagnosed with the disease don’t live to adolescence.
“There is no cure. There is no treatment.”
Coyne, however, wanted Garrett, who is now blind, to enjoy what may very well be his last Christmas. She took him to the nearby King of Prussia Mall, where the mall Santa, she says, is particularly good with sick and disabled children.
“The mall is great. The Santa is wonderful. He sits down and really talks to the children.”
Unfortunately, Nancy and Garrett’s visit to Santa was marred by a hater who doesn’t understand the concepts of patience and understanding. Nancy and parked in a disabled spot, which was her right, considering that she had a placard allowing her to do so. That, however, enraged a hater to no end. When she went back to her car, she found a note, written in lipstick and smeared on the driver’s side window.
“UR Not Handicap [sic].”
Mom takes terminally ill son to meet Santa, finds nasty message on car https://t.co/GNB21Xkll0 pic.twitter.com/bhQk15qdG7
— FOX 29 (@FOX29philly) December 7, 2017
“I can’t believe someone could be so obnoxious and ignorant and rude about a situation that I struggle with daily.”
A spokesperson for King of Prussia Mall said the shopping center shares Nancy’s concern about the incident, and the mall is helping Upper Merion police investigate the matter. Although leaving a hateful note is not a crime, smearing lipstick on someone’s car is an act of vandalism, so there’s definitely a criminal element to this scene, albeit a minor one.
Nancy, for her part, isn’t angry with the vandal so much as sad for him or her.
“I just want the person to realize what they did was wrong and to learn from it and not to it again.”
Unfortunately, Nancy’s story is not a rare one, and she is not the only person to have received an anonymous note from a hater taking exception to where they park. Back in 2015, for example, as HuffPost reported at the time, an Ohio woman named Ashley Brady found this out the hard way. Ashley has a prosthetic leg, and the apartment complex where she lives gives her a designated parking spot near her apartment. Unfortunately, a hateful neighbor wasn’t having it and left her a note.
“Hey Handicap… honey you ain’t the only one with ‘struggles.’ You want pity go to a one leg support group! You messed with the wrong one! I don’t care about what your note said shove it, but you touch my car again and I will file a report, I am not playing! I let the office know the cry baby one leg touches my property I will cause trouble so go cry your struggles to someone who cares cause I’m walking away with both mine!!!!!!”
Hopefully, the man or woman who left a nasty note on Nancy Coyne’s car will think twice before doing such a thing again.
