Now why didn't I think of this!

On Saturday night, my mother joined my kid sister's family for an evening of Christmas shopping at the mall, capped off with a birthday dinner. (Mom had a candle in her hot fudge sundae.) When they got home, the entire front yard was filled with police. Cop cars were in the driveway. One of the officers warned my family not to step in the blood.

Huh? What?

It seems that a woman had been robbed and ran to my mother's front door for help. Her assailant followed her and stabbed her, right there on my mother's front porch. Because she was wearing so many layers of heavy winter clothes, she wasn't hurt badly. Someone who witnessed the scene (we still don't know who) called the police. An ambulance took the victim away. She will recover completely. Her assailant escaped on foot.

My mother lives in a rather sleepy little burb. The police were not as compassionate nor as forthcoming with information as she would have liked. She was, understandably, frightened and upset. Andy and Barney were upset, too. Stuff like this really doesn't happen in her town.

I'm just very grateful she wasn't home when all this went down.

And I'm happy for my kid sister. She's so competitive. My mother will remember coming home from celebrating with my sister's family to find blood and police much longer than she recalls my gigantic Mrs. Field's cookie.