Local Teen Refuses to Visit Grandma

Won't visit grandma
Won't visit grandma

VANCOUVER – In a decision that has thrown his family into disarray, local teen Carter Johnson, 13, has refused to visit his grandmother, Pearl Martins, 75, a resident at the Golden Years Retirement Community. His father, Bruce Johnson, explains.

“We were planning on heading out on Sunday for our monthly visit of Grandma when Carter suddenly announces, ‘I’m not going.’ I have to say I’m sympathetic, I never like to go either but it’s important to Sylvia, my wife, that we all visit her mom. Anyway, I tell him he is going and, you know, it was kind of touching: his eyes all welled up and his voice cracked but he insisted that he wasn’t. He didn’t swear or call us names or anything he just said that he wasn’t going to visit her anymore and then he ran to the second floor bathroom and locked the door. I respect his decision actually but it’s making my life hell with his mother.”

Victoria Johnson, 11, the sister of the teen is quick to assure everyone who asks that she is still visiting her grandmother even though her brother is “being a dork”.

Pearl Martins comments on her hurt surprise at her grandson’s boycott from the visitors’ room at Golden Days.

“He was always a difficult little boy. Frankly, his parents spoiled him which caused all the trouble in first place. I always say look to the parents and you’ll see where the problems start. Actually, what really concerns me is how the people here are stealing from me. I’m not well, you know. I had the worst flu for the longest time. But they have put me in with this woman who is stealing from me. I keep telling the management here but they won’t do anything. Typical, she’s very sly and deceiving, like all her kind. She pretends to be dotty but she’s an incorrigible criminal.”

Carter Johnson responds from his driveway where he is dribbling a basketball. He is grounded “indefinitely” until he changes his “attitude”.

“Yeah, I don’t know. It just kind of sucks going there. I mean it always smells like piss there and it’s just depressing. And it’s not like she’s nice or anything. All she does is talk about herself and how sick she is and how Mrs. Bromstein is stealing from her. Aren’t old people supposed to be wise and have learned things about life and how to be happy? She just seems bitter.”