(Note: out of concern for their privacy, I'm omitting the couple's last name.)
There are times that I wish I hadn't turned on the news. This is one of them.
The WPVI news reader was droning on about an elderly couple who had been brutalized in their home in Center City, and I wasn't paying too much attention. Then I heard the address: the 400 block of Jessup Street. Wait a minute. I know a couple who live there. It can't be... I rewound the PVR to play back the story from the beginning to get the names: "Eighty-two-year-old Hiram B---- and his wife 80-year-old Irma were victims of a horrific crime..."
There was a period about ten to fifteen years ago when I was attending the Philadelphia Orchestra's Sunday afternoon chamber music concerts regularly. The seats were unreserved, so I'd get there early to be assured of a good seat. Without fail I shared my place near the head of the line with a wonderful, sweet couple named Hiram and Irma. We'd chat, mostly about music, but often about politics or whatever, and over the course of the five or so years, I looked forward to our chats as much as the concerts themselves.
Did I mention how gentle and caring they were? One day I skipped a concert. That evening my phone rang, and a familiar woman's voice asked, "Hello, you may not know us, but are you the fellow that goes to the chamber concerts..."
"Irma? Is that you?" I asked.
"We weren't sure if this was your number," she continued, "but when you didn't show up for the concert this afternoon, we got worried. So we looked up your name in the phone book. We wanted to make sure you were all right."
"I'm speechless. Thank you so much..."
She laughed. "We've lost so many friends lately, and at our age we can't afford to lose any more."
Eventually I did stop going to the concerts, but I'd occasionally see them in and around Center City; they always greeted me warmly. It's been three or four years since I last saw them, and I had been wondering how they were doing.
The Big Story is the search for a man police say brutally beat an elderly couple in a home invasion. Eighty-two-year-old Hiram B---- and his wife 80-year-old Irma were victim of a horrific crime that happened in broad daylight at the elderly couple's Center City row home.
It was around four in the afternoon, the couple was returning to their home, in the 400 block of Jessup near 11th and Lombard. They were turning the key in the lock when the suspect came up from behind them and forced them inside.
Police say the suspect then brutally beat the B----s; dragged them around the house, hit them repeatedly with a soup can and threw a frail Hiram B---- down the basement steps.
Police found blood everywhere when they entered the home to begin their investigation. Residents who live along the narrow, tree-lined street of quaint row homes in the heart of Center City looked on as the crime scene unit searched for clues, fingerprints, and perhaps even DNA directing them to a suspect.
In fact, one neighbor said the B----s have shared this home for the last 40 years, recently their health has declined. Irma doesn't come out as much, but when she does, like on a pretty weekend like this, the couple is known to sit outside on the front step and walk down Jessup hand in hand.
People who know them say this quiet, peaceful couple would have no ability to fight back against such a violent attack.
Mrs. B---- is now out of the hospital. Her husband is hospitalized in stable condition.
It's at times like this that I feel utterly helpless. I can only hope that they have friends or family or neighbors who can help them through this awful experience.
Posted by jt at April 18, 2004 04:04 PM