Beyond the Absurd: When Your Mother Encounters a Naked Man in the Change Room at the Public Pool

Commentary
For years my mother has gone swimming several times per week at her local pool in Ottawa. The pool is a central part of her life, but recently her once-innocuous activity became unsafe.
About two months ago, my mother finished her swim and went to the women’s change room to shower. Afterwards she wrapped herself in a towel and there, facing away from her, was a naked man. Shocked, she hurriedly got dressed. The man was over six feet tall, with a comb-over. He got dressed, turned around and, in my mother’s words, “leered” at her, then left….