Oh no, it’s the consequences of your actions.
My grandma has always been a warrior for women’s rights. She wasn’t just ahead of her time—she paved the way for others to follow. She was the first woman in our country to lead a major department for inspections and quality control at the largest steel mill. Back then, the idea of a woman overseeing and critiquing men’s work was not just unusual—it was revolutionary.
Oh, the things she went through. Her life is a tapestry of stories worth telling. But today, I want to share one from her later years.
A few years ago, my country took a sharp turn to the right. At one point, a law was passed allowing pharmacists to refuse to sell emergency contraceptives—the morning-after pill—if doing so conflicted with their “conscience.” Even if the pharmacy stocked the pill, the pharmacist could simply say no on religious grounds.
Fine. The law is the law. People have their choices, right?
Sure.
But my grandma? She wasn’t having it.
She decided to take matters into her own hands.
One by one, she started visiting every pharmacy in the city—nearly 1,000 of them. Day after day, she’d pick a few new ones, and every single time, she’d repeat the same routine:
Grandma: “Hello! Do you sell the morning-after pill?”
Sometimes, the pharmacist would look baffled and ask, “The pill after what?”
And she would reply, loud and clear: “After sex!!!”
If the answer wasn’t satisfactory, she had a speech locked and loaded:
“Listen. I’m an old lady—85 years old already. I’m the leader of the local senior citizens’ group in this area.” (This was absolutely NOT true—she was bluffing!) *“And we, elderly folks, are the main customers keeping your pharmacy afloat. We buy the majority of your meds.
Now, we’re going from pharmacy to pharmacy, checking who sells the morning-after pill. Because we want our grandkids to have children when they want them—not because some pharmacist with a so-called ‘conscience’ says otherwise.
And let me tell you this: those with a ‘conscience’? They can stuff their mouths with potatoes and pretend they enjoy it! Because us old folks will be shopping somewhere else!”*
We might not always agree on politics, ethics, or beliefs, but you’ve got to admit—my grandma had guts, strength, and the audacity to stand up for what she believed in.
And I love her very, very much.
EDIT: Okay, I checked—it was exactly 448 pharmacies!
