In a heart-wrenching story out of Carlsbad, CA, 26-year-old Erin Thompson was inconsolable after seeing an old person quietly enjoying a meal alone at a restaurant.
“It was so sad,” she told reporters. “He was just sitting there eating. By himself.”
When asked to explain what exactly she found upsetting, Thompson, who had also been eating alone, was incredulous.
“He was at least 70,” she said. “What’s not to understand?”
On the contrary, several witnesses alleged that there was nothing inherently sad about the scene, with one bystander chalking Thompson’s distress up to “literally just seeing an old person.”
An inside source informed reporters that old people existing has always been a touchy subject for Thompson.
“We had to stop taking her to visit her grandparents when she was a kid,” said Tara Thompson, Erin’s mother. “It was just too distressing for her to see them like that.”
And by “that”, Tara meant “enjoying a rich and fulfilling life in their 80s.”
“My heart aches whenever I see an old person by themselves in public,” Thompson was heard telling anyone in her immediate vicinity. “It’s just like, why are they alone, you know? Probably a dead spouse or a family that doesn’t visit. Fuck…”
When asked if she ever considered that old people are just that – people – and can live their lives and do things alone without being infantilized and subjected to the undue pity of strangers, Thompson ignored the question and plowed on.
“I should’ve gone over and said something to him,” she said. “I probably would’ve been the first person to talk to him in weeks. Months, even.”
Thompson also expressed concern about how the presence of an old person has affected her personally.
“It just really reminded me of my own fragile mortality, and I couldn’t help but to reflect on my bygone youth and on some of life’s unanswerable questions, like, ‘Will I also get old one day?’ It’s impossible to say.”
At press time, Thompson was seen tearing up while openly staring at an old couple holding hands in the park, making them visibly uncomfortable and eventually forcing them to exit the area.
