Patron is bruised and battered in altercation with waitress

Dear Abby By Abigail Van Buren

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I were getting ready to leave after dinner at a restaurant we’ve patronized for 15 years. I went to the ladies’ room and was washing my hands when a waitress I don’t care for came barging in, got in my face and started yelling at me. I tried to leave, but she wouldn’t let me out of the restroom. I asked her several times to let me out, and she kept telling me no. When she finally let me go, I told the man in charge what she did. My husband called him later, but the manager believed the waitress, who said that I started it. Another waitress who calls me her “sister” didn’t answer the texts I sent her. I am very hurt that she ignored me. Clearly, she believes the waitress, too. The restroom encounter left red marks all over my arm, but the manager didn’t care. The offender has left town and moved out of state. I’m 74 and was tempted to go to the police but didn’t. Now I wish I had pressed charges. Should I have? — BEATEN UP IN CALIFORNIA DEAR BEATEN UP: There is probably more to this story than what you have written, but yes, you should have notified the police. You were assaulted and falsely imprisoned in that restroom. Had you contacted the police and gone to an emergency room about the marks on your arm, you would have had proof about what the woman did to you. *** DEAR ABBY: My older sister has just been diagnosed with cervical cancer. The HPV vaccine might have protected her from it, had it been available to our generation. A few of us were out to lunch recently, and when I asked a younger sister if her granddaughter had received the vaccine, she went off on me like I had asked something terrible. Do you think I was wrong for asking? I have grandkids and would not be offended if someone asked me that question. — CONCERNED SISTER DEAR CONCERNED SISTER: If you and the younger sister are close, then I don’t think your question was offensive. However, if you are not, because it was asked in front of friends, she may have interpreted it as an implication that her granddaughter — who is, of course, pure as the driven snow — is sexually active, which made her defensive. *** Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby. com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.