Students' Support For Amazing Maisie

Chris Prince / 19 November 2019 / Categories: News, Student Newsletter

Our Peer Mentors recently visited the home of a WW2 Veteran to show their support. Student Newsletter reporter Viki tells us more...

Maisie, a wonderful independent woman who was recently burgled, reported feeling unsafe in her own home - so much so that she felt compelled to leave her home that she planned and built from the ground up. Mrs Milnes figured that as young people, the Peer Mentors could show her that not all young people have malicious intent.

We left in the morning to her home in hopes to brighten her day, someone to listen to - and even brought Victoria Sponge and biscuits (carefully guarded on the minibus ride by Ellen).  After arriving we offered to make Maisie some tea, but to our surprise, Maisie ended up making all eight of us a cup each! See where I got the “independent woman” part?

While settling in, we introduced ourselves. We had to get used to speaking a little louder to accommodate Maisie’s hearing aid, but we adapted pretty fast and it simply became natural as we began talking. Maisie first started by talking about the incident that worried her - the burglary itself. Now you can imagine how terrifying it would be to live alone as an elderly woman, and Maisie experienced the worst case scenario. She arrived home to find someone had broken in and entered, initially noticed as soon as she came in, as a young man in all black dashed down the stairs. She was mortified; did he have a knife? A weapon? Could he hurt her? Luckily, Maisie came out unscathed, but it was the mental scar that took a toll on her. Maisie no longer felt secure in her own home.

For the first time in over fifty years, Maisie decided to move house, and would be moving no sooner than Christmas into a flat nearby. However, she still managed to look on the bright side, her new flat would be closer to bus stops for easy transport! I admire her optimism. She then moved on to how it was to go to school during her era, a time where you had to pay to carry on and do the equivalent exam to the GCSEs, which made me realise how lucky our generation is. We tend to take that for granted time and time again! Anyways, Maisie was a very studious and determined girl in school, and studied towards her exams. Her favourite subject was common with mine: Science, particularly, Biology. In fact, in her youth, she ended up working in a small manufacturing company which made specimens which you would view under microscopes, and distributed to schools.

Though she didn’t go into depth, she was a Veteran in World War II and we commend her for her service. To our dismay, it was time to leave. We offered help, specifically to wash dishes, but yet again, Maisie declined, telling us she could wash up herself! And so, we set off with a wave and a goodbye.

I hope to see her again someday, when she settles into her new flat I would be happy to sit down and chat again for hours. Maisie is such a fascinating woman!