Helen Reynolds is a force to be reckoned with.
The 88-year-old from Chester County, Pennsylvania, had returned home from the store around 3 p.m. one day in February when she heard a knock at the door. Not thinking twice about who would be stopping by in the middle of the day, Helen answered it, only to be violently pushed aside by a young man who intended to rob and assault her, according to a report by CBS Philadelphia.
It was the beginning of what would be a three-hour invasion of Helen’s home and belongings. The intruder was in search of cash—rummaging through Helen’s things, he only came up with $40.
The elderly woman, who’s got a spit-fire spirit, tried to reason with the young man:
“I said, ‘Would you do this to your mother? Or would you like somebody else to bother her like you are doing me?’”
The young man only responded by telling her to “shush.” He then pulled out a roll of duct tape, which he used to bind Helen’s hands, head and mouth.
He then told Helen that robbery wasn’t the only thing he had in mind.
The intruder stripped the 88-year-old of her clothing, and threw her face-first on the bed.
She continued fighting with resilience, kicking the man in the groin and gnawing at the duct tape on her mouth.
“Maybe I really hurt him. I don’t know and I really don’t care.”
When the man pressed on, Helen relied on her words to ward him off. She quickly came up with a lie about her late husband, telling the intruder that he died of HIV:
“That’s when I told him that I had HIV and my husband died of it, which is a lie.”
And those words were just the ticket to scare her intruder back to where we came from. The man tied her ankles together with a piece of wire he had, and fled her house.
Helen freed herself by chewing through the duct tape, then running to a neighbor for help.
Though her quick-thinking saved her from becoming a victim, Helen knows that her words had little to do with it:
“It was all about me and my God and he helped me out.”
This brave grandma hopes that her story is a warning for all women her age, and a reminder to “never stop fighting.”
