WHEN MY BULLY GOT IN TOUCH…

What would you do if you were me?

I was bullied at school (Yr 7 in the UK) by two girls who took it upon themselves to make my life miserable.

These girls were meant to be my friends, they were older than me and my mum felt having two girls walk me to and from school would really help my transition to secondary school back in the late 1970s.

In those days in the UK, you had infants’ school, then junior school until you were 11 years old and then on to secondary school until 16 when you decided whether or not you wanted to get a job, or go into higher education.

Anyway, mum, doing her best for me, had no idea those girls would torment me, tease me, would make me feel stupid, vilify my friends and generally taunt and push me around.

I can’t remember how long this all lasted or what particular incident brought matters to a head. What I do know is that in the end I refused to go to school and it was that which prompted my mum to get to the bottom of my distress.

Once she found out what the problem was, there was hell to pay for my bullies. She took them both on and their parents who were known to us. The bullying stopped overnight once my mum made it clear that she would bully them if they touched me again.

Now those bullies are in their early 60s a sentence which when said aloud is astounding. They are literally pushing for their pensions. Older than their parents were at that time.

Recently one of them messaged me on social media under her married name. I had no idea who she was. Why would I? I had no idea of her married name. Yet her first question left me in no doubt, this was one of those girls. She could not be anyone else.