KEY POINTS:
Lying in her hospital bed with a broken elbow and two fractures to her pelvis, 86-year-old Ida Simmons has several dirty words to describe her teenage attacker - but "little skunk" are probably the cleanest few she can think of.
About 10.30am on Wednesday the retired Te Awamutu woman, who suffers from scoliosis (curvature of the spine), was making her way back to her car after doing some errands about town.
"I earlier went to Woolworths and took my walking frame for that, and then to go to the drycleaners. I put the walking frame in my car and didn't take it out again. I used my walking stick [to go for coffee]."
On her way back she became anxious to get to her car quickly because her back condition was giving her pain. She had to cut through a walkway, between Stirling Sports and National Bank, to get back to the street and car park.
"I encountered five guys, and nobody gave way. I went against the grain and got through. I was so desperate to get back to the car. I only had $30 in my wallet."
She was struck from behind by a "tremendous push" to her back. "I sprawled out and hit the deck with my left arm underneath me. I looked up and was yelling something, I don't know what."
The offender grabbed her bag and "galloped off madly," with the remainder of the group scattering. "They looked like louts, sloppily dressed."
Taken by ambulance to Waikato Hospital in Hamilton, she spent up to nine hours in accident and emergency before being admitted to the orthopaedic ward. Yesterday Mrs Simmons, a widow on the war pension who lives alone, had an operation to help clean up the abrasions to her arm. Stitches were used to help the wound heal.
She will need a further operation to address the elbow fracture, but surgeons cannot do anything to help the two fractures to the left side of her pelvis. Those have to mend by themselves.
Police have arrested a 16-year-old and the search of a local house unearthed Mrs Simmons' handbag, minus the cash.
"He's a little skunk of the lowest degree," the grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of two said of her attacker yesterday. "I hope he never has a decent night's sleep."
Although she acknowledged the act was violent and cowardly, she was determined not to let it knock her confidence and she wanted to keep her independence.
"Bugger them. If I could think of stronger words to use I would."
Both her sons, Colin from Auckland and Brian from Hamilton, were at her bedside yesterday, as her daughter, Kay, headed up from Carterton.
"There's too much of it around," Brian said of the attack. "It's about time it stopped."
Mrs Simmons said she still had faith in Te Awamutu, where she has lived for the past five years. Many people had appeared after the attack to help and reassure her.
"The police were on to it smartly. They checked everything was there including all my cards [in the bag], minus the cash. They picked up my car and took it home and put my groceries away."
The arrested teenager has appeared in the Te Awamutu District Court charged with aggravated robbery. He entered no plea and was remanded on bail with a 24-hour curfew. He will reappear in the Youth Court next month.
