By Bill Rettew | wrettew@dailylocal.com | Daily Local News UPDATED: February 14, 2025 at 12:08 PM EST
I would like to know WHERE in the Daily Local News article that Vista Today’s Ashley Pierce who works as paid full time staff (Communications and Membership Coordinator) at the Western Chester County Chamber of Commerce sees that the reporter actually said that West Whiteland blocked demolition and development of the decrepit Exton mall? Because someone with a communications position one would hope had a better grasp of just plain reading an article?
What happened last week was a public hearing for an ordinance amendment in West Whiteland pertaining to a West Whiteland Township zoning ordinance, correct?
Quite literally the recommended motion was to tweak the zoning, right? It was advertised etc properly, correct? Wasn’t it discussed at a meeting towards end of 2024? Aren’t municipalities allowed to tweak zoning? And again, where did West Whiteland say they were blocking a demolition or development? Where did the reporter in The Daily Local say that? Does Ashley Pierce have imaginary friends she plays with still too?
You know sometimes I think Vista Today and the various other publications under their umbrella are ok, but the thing is this; what are they actually writing and researching? Are they just a news aggregator? It’s confusing, right? When they first started they did have some original content but now not so much?
So they aim to make a positive impact? How is oddly interpolating what a local paper’s reporter wrote and not accurately representing what West Whiteland did a positive impact? Funny how a news aggregator is becoming the news but not necessarily perhaps how originally intended?
Here is a YouTube that Vista had in their piece:
And I found this video from a couple of months ago:
Now when this mall was in it’s heyday, I was on the Main Line. We went to King of Prussia or took the train into Philadelphia. I do remember coming out here for stores in a strip mall. It has been too long but it was I want to say it was when Exton Crossing was built because a friend of mine at the time had an older sister who when newly married was living in Exton Station which was new at the time and not completely built. I don’t remember what strip mall, honestly. I think maybe where the Kohl’s is today.
Anyway, I think Vista Today owes West Whiteland and the Daily Local reporter an apology. Maybe they should go for more original content versus sharing everything from everyone else all of the time?
Here are two recordings from the West Whiteland Zoom on this that were made the night of the contentious meeting:
And dayummmm, West Whiteland JUST put out a press release on this. After I share that I will post things I found pertaining to the Exton Mall in deeds etc. It’s not just one parcel. And do any of you see new ownership reflected yet? I didn’t so I guess it is still in process? Whatever, this is kind of mall drama and the sad thing is an ordinance change is not prohibiting development or a mall demolition is it? And a final note is simply to ask if it is well past time for the Building and Planning guy Weller to retire?
Yeah that photo….but wait there are more….West Chester Borough…newer apartment building with “amenities.” I have to ask if trash is counted as an amenity?
Pretty damn gross.
So what would you do?
I would call the Borough of West Chester and Chester County Health Department, if the latter is not too busy screwing over church soup kitchens, right?
Tenants deserve protection and again, pretty gross, right?
Tell me again the fairy tale of how fabulous all these hulking box after box apartments are good for communities, ok?
Flying Monkeys have been out of fashion since the Wizard of Oz (movie 1939, book 1900.) In both, the monkeys symbolized a dark side of the human ego, or evil that people are capable of.
Interestingly enough, “Flying monkeys” is a common descriptive term used to describe people who carry out the abusive or manipulative wishes of a narcissist.
Yes, for real. After doing a little bit of research, I know I’m not the only one who has looked into this. And those who have looked into it include clinical psychologist, like the one with the YouTube above.
Some view social media as a giant popularity contest. And if they can’t be the top of the pile, they want to basically take out anyone else that’s in their way. Remember however, a good narcissist never wants to get their own hands dirty. They want to provoke people to act. They sit back and watch others do their bidding. They are self-absorbed cowards.
Flying monkeys are another spin on the mean girls middle school lunch table, and generally speaking it’s a narcissistic person. They vibrate when they are afraid their carefully (or not carefully) crafted cover is cracking, or has cracked. It’s a form of an act of desperation cloaked as other things.
Essentially the people sending the flying monkeys are insecure and afraid. They want people to think they are wonderful, they need that. If you threaten that, you are the enemy. Especially if you think they are behaving in a silly or laughable manner.
Don’t laugh, you can’t laugh, you must adore? Yeah mmmkay.
Yes a narcissist can actually be insecure. They are apparently known as “vulnerable narcissists,” and people with narcissistic tendencies can indeed be deeply insecure, often using extreme and grandiose behaviors as a way to compensate for a need for constant validation from others.
There are also “grandiose narcissists.” They can appear to have a genuinely over-inflated sense of self.
Interestingly, narcissists can have a fear of abandonment too. I didn’t know that until I began researching the topic out of curiosity. I learned narcissistic types may try to make others feel insecure to temporarily strengthen their own sense of self-worth. Which makes social media and all the unreality in it their most perfect playground.
A malignant narcissist is defined as someone with an extreme sense of self-importance, a lack of empathy, and a disregard for others. They are also manipulative, aggressive, and abusive.
Again, social media is the perfect breeding and grooming ground. The majority of people don’t see these people in real time, only whatever they are posting on social media. It’s all look at them, look at their possessions, every aspect of their lives. It all appears so perfect, but it’s a façade to some extent, isn’t it?
Social media is a giant Petrie dish of pack mentality, so when a narcissistic person feels threatened, they literally call on the flying monkey squad. They don’t want to get their own hands dirty, but to a narcissistic individual your hands are their hands. They will coach people in what to say on their behalf, only they manipulate you into thinking it’s your idea. They are not above complete fibbing about their targets, and there are enough damaged or vulnerable people to believe it hook, line, and sinker especially on social media where few do actual research. Narcissists reel these folks in by appearing to be a little bit of what these people seek consciously and subconsciously.
Truly it’s fascinating, even when it’s directed at you. When flying monkeys are sent after another person it’s deliberately done to hurt a target of a narcissist’s ire or insecurity (or both.)
I have experienced this. Most recently a flying monkey who came in the form of a woman who had to call me out first on social media and what people should think or do about me who has zero to do with their life. This person is a complete stranger, so this behavior? Already quite odd.
Next this person started sending me private messages while trying to join a group they were previously removed from. The messages were obviously coached and rather fantastical given some of the odd word salad language. You could hear more than one voice. Oh and this person included middle school tactical maneuvers like she spoke to people about me, that they all really loved her and I was keeping them from her and how many people hate me.
It was fascinating.
And their beliefs and arguments about me a total stranger? Utterly fabricated and fantastical. Essentially gaslighting and attempted guilt tripping. a diversion from their own messy lives, perhaps?
I would say why can’t we all get along. But then there are these people who are threatened by anyone different from themselves or who recognize them for who they are , and voilà, here we are.
Is this all about me? No, but the impetus has been personal experience. Does that make me a narcissist? No. Sociologically and psychologically it is actually fascinating. I am sure that irritates narcissists and their flying monkey squads, because that is not the desired effect.
So the moral of this story is don’t let people steal your joy. And why do people want to steal the joy of others? Maybe we are not supposed to care about their motivation? Maybe it’s that simplistic and we are merely supposed to recognize this for what it is and go about our lives?
You can’t please everyone all of the time, and you have to ask yourself if we are supposed to? I don’t think so. And with people whom you don’t know and don’t really care to know on social media, you have to laugh. If it seems like fantastical and illogical projection, it probably is. It all goes back to the simple theory of consider the source.
This week I put up a rather simple post. It said what needed to be said and was a check in with people who were concerned. It said:
Yes, I am well aware of the comments elsewhere essentially fat shaming me. If people wish to fat shame me based upon a photo taken in year 10 of a breast cancer drug called Tamoxifen, that’s on them. I can’t control people who wish to shame breast cancer survivors.
If they wish to literally make sheit up about me which is utterly false that is also pathetic and yes, real threats are actionable and documented.
Oh the irony however when someone who is purportedly in the business of offering mental health support who is married to someone who is in the business of caring for women specifically decides to gaslight a woman for personal gain.
That statement was the truth, and my truth. It really got me thinking. Not about me per se, but the whole body shaming, woman shaming of it all.
I was never the skinny kid with seemingly endless legs. That was always my sister who is quite frankly, a knock out. And I don’t envy her that, it comes with it’s own set of obnoxious some days, usually in the form of men who need manners and women who are just simply put jealous of another woman.
I was always the more ordinary one. Have people said I was beautiful or pretty? Yes, but I never really saw that in myself, I just saw me. At the time I was growing up, especially when at Shipley in my era, I was a regular girl with a vowel on the end of my name with brown hair in a sea of fair skinned, fair eyed, fair haired, blue eyed WASPs for the most part.
I was actually truly O.K. with that. I fit in without being a cookie cutter junior Stepford in training of everyone else. I think that has changed today. Today it is like you can and will be punished for being an individual, and it’s worse if you are independent minded. People seem to fear what is not their immediate image in the mirror. You are supposed to be Stepford even on social media, or should I say especially on social media.
I used to think it was kids who could be the most cruel. As an adult I have come to realize that it is in fact the adults who are the most cruel, and that is where the kids first learn it from. One of my readers said to me the other day “Life is a helluva lot easier when we focus on the positive instead of burdening ourselves with the negative.” He is correct. BUT I don’t think we can always gloss over the negative, I think we have to let it out into the sunlight to set it free and not allow it to possess us and darken our joy.
I have been talking about bullying in schools occasionally over the past few years. I was speaking to a friend of mine yesterday with kids still in the middle school/high school years. What blew me away is how bad some of the bullying is, and it’s not just the kids. It’s also parents essentially bullying other parents. or adult on adult bullying in general.
So whenever someone says they are surprised by bullying in schools, I always respond why because all we have to do is look to see what the adults are doing.
There is a pack mentality that exists on social media. And usually it occurs on things not particularly important in larger scheme of life. Someone puts up a post gaslighting another person, including myself. In one case it was someone who has self-identified as a public figure and seems to fashion themselves a social media influencer. Usually these are people without obvious star power, or at least discernable personalities in real life, but not all of the time.
I have been a target so often, I lose count. My crimes? Having opinions and not being like the rest of the pack. Oh and not caring to know every single person on Facebook. It’s actually kind of boring. Just like the people who project their behavior onto me, especially those who seem shocked I might stand up for myself while not being untruthful.
This past week was a fascinating sociological and psychological study. Complete pack mentality like rabid dogs. People I chose not to interact with like a woman from high school years, whom I didn’t remember and met again coming out here from the Main Line. Three husbands (or maybe it’s two?) later she is a joke of a human being. She sniffs around anything having to do with me and it’s kind of funny. It was not hard to let her go. She was fun as a friend again for a while, until she wasn’t, so then it was quietly over on my part. Hope she is enjoying all those single events she attends. She’s a good Christian who would stab you in the back without blinking.
Then there are the various and sundry women younger and older than I who probably mistrust me solely because I didn’t go to high school with them, or don’t live in their development, or share their Stepford like political views whatever they may be. I also never sold Slipada or Lu La Roe or protein whatever drinks, and don’t regularly shop QVC. These are the women who are obsessed with everything that isn’t them, that they can’t put into a neat little box. They also don’t like it if you don’t care that they spend their days living the Middle School lunch table life.
Then there are the people who pile on who I have quietly helped in real life. And to what end do they participate? To fit in? How sad. It must be sad to be them.
There are also men mixed in with this. That is always truly fascinating. They want to mansplain or bully and why? Why does one woman they don’t know matter so much?
These people love to gossip. And it’s malicious. And not just to me. But bless their hearts, they are going to do and say whatever. Of course whatever THEY say is fine, it’s everyone else not in their amoeba pack that is the problem. C’est la vie.
I am wishing all of these people a Happy Valentine’s Day slightly sarcastically and bless their heartish. I am wishing my readers and those whom actually know me a genuine Happy Valentine’s Day.
The above ad keeps floating around on Facebook. So I decided to take the image of the jewelry store you see and put it in a Google image search. Not surprisingly, it is fake.
And it’s not like what is being proposed by West Whiteland Township is a bad idea, or illegal. The only thing that’s happening over here with this is they’re trying to reduce the number of apartment buildings and thank God somebody’s trying to do it. And yes, I’m allowed that opinion as well.
There’s only so much that all of our communities can handle with development and developers don’t care about that. And along those lines because nobody wants to update the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, there are very few controls
West Whiteland isn’t prohibiting development, they’re just signaling that another type of development is what’s actually needed and that’s single-family homes that aren’t all for McMillionaires, either, correct?
I mean, what is so terrible about zoning for more single-family homes versus multi dwelling apartment things?
The reality is, there’s only so much our communities can handle.
Hester Prynne. I bet most don’t know what I am referring to. Some will recognize the reference to The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. And before I get into the crux of this post, allow me to reflect on why many wouldn’t understand the Nathaniel Hawthorne reference. The Scarlet Letter as a novel is about shaming and social stigmatizing of Hester Prynne. But do students even read this book any longer? Are they allowed to?
I wear my scarlet letter as B for blogger or D for Different.
The Scarlet Letter is about 17th century New England. Today one could say the similar behaviors portrayed in this novel (written in the 19th century about life in the 17th century) is sort of life imitates art and art imitates life…and today it plays out nearly every day on social media somewhere. The masses used to whisper behind their hands to their pals in the market square, now they just vomit their word salad thoughts all over social media.
This novel by Nathanial Hawthorne also can be distilled down to a society punishing a woman for refusing to conform to what they determined the acceptable standards to be. Judgement of women. Nothing new there. It takes different forms as time progresses, but it comes back to Different = Bad and one of the Sheeple = Good.
So yesterday a certain wannabe influencer self proclaimed public figure had a rather predictable social media met down. It happened as always on his famous group page which is uplifting and delightful…or so he says, right? I mean gosh that must be totally by accident that he in fact is allowing doxxing of me, right?
File under desperate men do desperate things, don’t they? Including hit up an @everyone when probably not enough people were reading his post?
Let’s break this down shall we?
I’m NOT in his group. I was in it when was it exactly? Two or three years ago? I initially didn’t even KNOW it was HIS group because I was one of the people that he let into the group but blocked. You see if you block people in your group but allow them to be there it pumps up the numbers. And why did he block me in the first place? No one knows. I actually didn’t go into his group very much when I WAS in it because I found it insipid and silly. I could never remember the name of the group – ask my friends – yes OMG I have real friends, he must be jelly right?
Already he was self branding as a public figure and wannabe influencer when he started his preposterous, fake events to meet him and “mingle” (why would you?) I laughed and posted about it- I think most of this influencer stuff is completely fakakta. And why would anyone want to pay to meet him and have cheap bar aps? Seriously?
In October 2023, I believe it was that he called Easttown Township Police on me. I had a conversation with a detective who called to say that oh yes, they had closed an investigation on me that I didn’t know existed in the first place and they found nothing . And why did they find nothing? Because this man puts his life out on public display. He talks about his kids/wife he posts pictures of his kids/wife. He post pictures of his houses everywhere. His cars. His dog. His multiple martini glasses. And what his group is about? Hasn’t it changed like the wind but mostly it’s always been for him to promote his influencerness or whatever?
He called the police after I made fun of his mingle with bad bar food events. It’s not against the law to post about or make fun of public figures/influencers/wannabe influencers is it? It was an event posted publicly and anyone could buy tickets, right?
I DON’T talk about his wife and I certainly don’t talk about people’s children and he’s just not being truthful, he is in fact coloring wayyy outside of those lines, and isn’t that the real deal? And his kids have not been picked on because of me, if that has happened at all. He talks about his kids. Kids are also not responsible for their parents’ antics.
So let’s refresh because he’s a little slow – obviously I’m not in his group and in like 30 minutes after he posted I had about 50 people send me the screenshots, continuing into today. I also have the screenshots of the comments, and I will get to that.
This guy puts it ALL on PUBLIC display even in his group. Every day. 24/7/365 and it makes a person wonder how he has time for his “busy practice” doesn’t it? And then there are the “Face of the Main Line” ads, right? And they are purchased, correct?
I have never said anything about his education, or his wife’s education.
His wife from what I can tell is a well respected doctor, who would have an issue with that? This here is probably the most I’ve EVER said about his wife just because he basically expresses falsehoods about me speaking about her in a pejorative manner and I have not. I wouldn’t. She’s a real doctor doing real things. As opposed as to seeking sympathy post meltdown on social media, right? I will offer the opinion (which is allowed) that if she was on my care team, I would replace her because of his antics.
And his dog? I have been mean to his dog now as well? Does he need a reminder about what he posted about his dog and a vet he used?
I DID ask if he was a licensed psychologist and why is that a bad thing? Don’t you want someone you are seeing for therapy, counseling, whatever to be licensed? By the way note in the screenshots below that he is not licensed at all at this point (checked database this morning) unless he recently applied for one? Does he want to explain that fine or is that my fault too?
And if he is supposed to be a psychotherapist or therapist of any kind, or a counselor, etc. is he exhibiting NORMAL behavior? Or is he twisting things with purpose in the hopes someone harms me?
And because he is essentially nouveau Main Line or tries to be, he wouldn’t know that I am known, and I am hardly hiding. I merely choose with whom I wish to interact.
And I must now ask because I’m genuinely curious, what precisely IS his work in the community for 24 years? Has he actually been on the Main Line for 24 years? Or is that like dog years or something? Did anyone know he existed before he put himself AND his family out on public display a handful of years ago?
I can’t control what he does or whatever freaky types contact him about me. Every pot has it’s lid even on social media, right?
I like that he thinks he has hidden cameras INSIDE my house so he knows what I am doing 24 hours a day, and if so, isn’t that example of what a stalker is, gosh what is? Does he like that post breast cancer I have 1 1/2 breasts, not two?
I should mention that I don’t actually know where he lives in Berwyn – and he posted his Delaware house for sale listing at one point in some public beach centric Facebook group, so umm?? And a reminder: he posts photos of his house or houses himself, so that dog don’t hunt either.
I like that he seems to think that I am still in his group and doesn’t get as I previously stated that I don’t see any of his stuff on social media first person – people send me screenshots. All these fabulous people whom he thinks ADORE him, but do they? Is that the real problem he has? That people pass screenshots around?
Seems to me that someone has his knickers in a twist over his own recent antics? Dude, YOU put this stuff out there – it ALL originates with you. And everything YOU accuse ME of doing you are attempting to do to me? Come on man child, for real ?
I think it’s a wee bit dramatic to say that I “hate” a public figure and wannabe influencer, isn’t it? That would imply a relationship that doesn’t exist.
Is this just trying to raise his image at my expense? Whatever. I guess I just don’t have the same needs as him , do I?
Poor wee man.
Also important to note that photo he used of me without attribution in his meltdown this weekend was from SAVVY Main Line. Yeah babe, that’s me…hiding. I should comment about why that photo was taken. Context is important – It was the 10 year anniversary of being breast cancer free, one year left on Tamoxifen, and I took friends on a special garden tour to celebrate. Caroline who owns and founded and created Savvy was with us that day and was at Lankenau Hospital the day I rang the bell after finishing treatment for breast cancer in 2011.
Here’s a synopsis of that time, those early days of diagnosis, surgery, treatment.
It all began during a routine checkup in March of 2011. I told my gynecologist, that I had found a lump. You should understand that, for me, lumps are not very unusual as I have a familial trait many women have of dense breasts. As she felt my left breast, a look came over her face. “I’m sending you to a breast surgeon. If I miss something I would never forgive myself,” she said.
I think in my heart of hearts I already knew what the result would be, and during the late afternoon of April 28 – just as my high school reunion from Shipley that year was about to begin – I received news no woman wants to hear: “You have breast cancer.” Invasive, lobular breast cancer to be precise. The room swirled for a moment. It was a total out-of-body, this-can’t-be-happening moment.
I spent a few of those early days in front of a mirror, trying to come to terms with how I looked at that moment, and how I might look after (depending on the size of the mass and the margins that needed to come out around it.) I also made my peace with the possibility of losing the entire breast. That was a really hard and weird place to go, but I had to do it. I stood in front of the mirror and covered up one breast. That was when it really hit me: breast cancer hits the core of femininity in every woman it touches.
I had a lumpectomy – also known as a partial mastectomy . Radiation, although easier then chemotherapy, was rough. Not only are you incredibly tired all the time, but you also have to live with perpetual sunburn that really, really hurts. Because my skin is sensitive, I had what can only be described as radiation rash and patches of degraded skin. Sharp, shooting pains running through the surgical site periodically as internal stiches continue to work their way out. Some days I was so tired that all wanted to do is sleep, but I couldn’t. Still, every day of radiation brought me one step closer to the end of that phase of my treatment. This taught me a lot about myself. I learned that I’m much tougher than I thought and that I’ve been blessed. Not only do I have a supportive family, but I also have the most amazing friends in the world.
September 13, 2011 was a sunny Tuesday morning, and I finished my radiation. I was overcome with emotion all morning but did my actual crying in the treatment room when it was over – bittersweet tears of happiness, relief and gratitude that no one saw. I knew I’d never forget the awesome team of technicians and nurses at Lankenau.
A slew of people gathered in the waiting room that day, including the author of Savvy Main Line. When it was all over and I rang the special bell signifying the end of treatment, they cheered. A hospital administrator actually chided us then for being too loud.
I’m now part of the sisterhood – women of different races, ethnicities, ages, sizes and shapes -forever bound together by this disease. So that was why that special garden visit recorded in Savvy where he took their photo from was about. It marked an important milestone in my breast cancer journey.
Now let’s delve into the comments. We’ll start slow with someone about to open a business localish to us. He also sent me an unsolicited message and OMG LOL he blocked me from responding… yet goes and adds his two unsolicited cents as a brand new business about to open over there in the comments from the Main Line Meltdown post? I mean what did I expect from a kibitzer? Guess he just plays both sides against the middle?
The sad thing is I was looking forward to another real deli closer than Philadelphia or the lower Main Line.
#GoBrandon !
Then there is a woman who is her own weirdness. This particular woman has allowed for the past few years in her group (which I never had any desire to join), for people to occasionally have entire threads up about me slamming and essentially disparaging me like I am a public figure or a politician or a celebrity instead of what I am, which is a middle-aged woman living in a community. Yes, there have been screenshots over the years.
This person reappeared a few weeks ago when there was a dust up in my gifting group because I had restated some basic rules like no mattresses, alcohol, prescription meds, etc. Real terrible stuff reminding people about items that may have attached liability issues, right? This woman essentially told an untruth in another thread first by saying I had spies on that woman’s page – it was a public post at least for a while- duh it had a little globe. I ironically stumbled upon the post myself because the woman who started this post kept getting suggested by Facebook as a friend so I finally went to look at her profile out of curiosity and saw this nutso post. Completely by fate I discovered it.
So back to this other woman who decided to tell an outright untruth by saying she was getting private messages from me insinuating many or several. There was ONE private message. This particular woman has had over the years demonstrated oddly competitive and nasty behavior towards me and others on social media I have never understood. ONCE as in the one and only time I saw her in person (I said hello) and she was quiet like an introverted mouse. And if she had EVER called the police on me, the police would’ve called me. It’s how it works.
Should I have sent the message? Perhaps not. But I have had a few years of crap at the hands of this person on social media and there comes a time in your life where you feel the need to take your power back even if it is by merely telling her the post I saw was public and I see her for who she is and always have. It started with her when I started a group and she wanted to join. After she was in the group, she literally tried to take it over. She was removed. So she went to start a competing group, only she was the one competing, not me.
And this woman claims she has no photos of her kids online? Yes she has had them and I have never shared them. If they appeared on a screenshot because she made something public, I have no recollection. Her kids are her kids, no interest to me but it makes a better yarn for her to say so I guess? I finally blocked her after the gifting group thing.
So she pops up here on the Influencer’s Lament, trying to seek relevance again I suppose? Spinning quite literally a yarn. Says she never met me in person. Again, as mentioned, she did once, and she was like a little mouse. Very different from her online persona.
Screenshot
And then there are other people. Mostly ones I blocked because I chose not to interact, and others I removed from various Facebook groups. It’s like they congregate in this group so they can slurp on my social media corpse. Monty Python would tell them I am not dead yet.
None of them know me. I certainly don’t wish to know them.
I am not in the group, and I am sent the screenshots. People are sharing screenshots all over, it’s what people do on social media. So when His Public Figureness refers to “hundreds” of screenshots of him taken by me? Umm duuuuddde, I am not in your group and I blocked you long ago. Yes there are screenshots, sent by other people, and certainly not hundreds. That is actually funny he must think he’s Beyoncé or something. And remember, (and I quote from a Main Line Today ad) he asks constructive questions, providing non-judgmental feedback and insight.
Now, the comments. They hold their own sociological fascination and it’s that gossip pack mentality in action. Am I supposed to be crushed by them? I’m not. I merely marvel. Why do so many people care about me one person? It doesn’t compute. And really it shouldn’t as it is somewhat nonsensical.
Have I lived the perfect life? No. But I like to think I am honest about who I am and I do actually try to be nice to people. Are there some people it is virtually impossible to be nice to? Yes indeed. And if you know me, you know I don’t suffer fools gladly. I try to avoid those people.
Truthfully, those who are mean and spiteful gossips “spreading the love” fall into the category of those people you choose not to have in your life after a point or at all in the first place. Psychologically I can only wonder what they are punishing the world for, but the truth of the matter is none of us are getting any younger. And you also have to accept people are different from you and as human beings we are not designed to be carbon copies of one and other. We are truly allowed to have different opinions and to be different people.
Ahh yes, the old adage you are judged by the company you keep. I remember my own mother telling me that when I was a teenager, and I remember scoffing at the idea. Then I remember being in my mid 20s and figuring out exactly what she was talking about and it was one of those a-ha moments that sometimes your mother is right. A friend of mine and I were talking about it recently and they said their mother said to them “show me your friends, I’ll show you your future.”
“People will question all the good things they hear about you but believe all the bad without a second thought.”
I have learned again among other things that apparently I wish to control local social media. I am amused at the sheer preposterousness of the statement.
Sadly, there is in human nature the desire to gossip or chatter about others. Anyone who says they haven’t done it isn’t being honest with themselves. I have written about it before because it is an interesting study in basic human nature or human flaws, take you pick.
This morning I devoted my time on WCHE All Politics Are Local with Barry Dee on a woman I never met, but am still concerned about because this could be any woman but I am speaking about Anna Maciejewska.
This is what I said and it will be podcasted later so you can listen if you missed it:
This week I am deviating from some of the usual topics to another topic which I feel strongly about. This week I am devoting my time to Anna Maciejewska, late of Malvern PA.
Specifically Charlestown Township since people from outside of Chester County who speak about Anna and Malvern, think all of Malvern is the main street town of Malvern Borough. As we all know, Malvern falls into multiple municipalities.
Anna Maciejewska disappeared around April 10, 2017. I say “around” because when Anna disappeared, it wasn’t her husband who initially reported her missing, it was friends and co-workers. According to police reports, family last heard from Anna on/around March 30 of 2017.
On March 30, Anna abruptly canceled a scheduled trip to Poland to visit family. It was to be her father’s 80th birthday. Her Polish family at the time said her final text message seemed to be non-native speaking Polish.
When Anna initially disappeared, there was a flurry of media exposure. As time goes by it has dwindled.
Anna was from Charlestown Township which is serviced by Pennsylvania State Police. I can’t think of the last time they updated the public on this case.
This year, 2025, marks EIGHT years since Anna disappeared. There have been 3 Chester County District Attorneys. Tom Hogan was DA when she initially went missing, then Deb Ryan before she became a judge, and now the DA is Chris de Barrena-Sarobe.
I have written about Anna so many times now I have forgotten the number of posts. I did not know her. But now we all feel like she is part of us and still missing.
I remember when I first started writing about her some of the Finding Anna people on Facebook were a smidge obnoxious and a few accused me of putting up a second Anna is missing Facebook page. I had put up no such page, but it was shortly after I was accused of this stupidity it was discovered some man had put it up. I am still waiting for some of those people to apologize. Some did, others did not. They had a page up, they were her friends and co-workers, I would NOT have detracted from their very personal efforts. All I was doing was writing about Anna being missing, and trying to do my bit to keep her name out there, as I continue to do today.
In 2018 I saw her missing start to be referred to as a missing person’s case and presumed homicide. Her husband Allan Gould was eventually named a person of interest.
Back when Anna was first missing, media reports said for more than a week before she was announced as missing, Anna’s mother Janina said she tried to reach Anna her daughter on her landline phone due to poor cell reception in her Malvern home. Once, her husband Allan Gould reportedly answered, saying Anna was sick and would call in a few days.
On Tuesday, April 11, 2017 Janina (her mother) said in an interview around the time that it happened that her son in law said Anna had left for work the day before and never returned. Anna worked at Voya Financial. I recently discovered that she appears to have been significantly younger than her husband. Her little boy, whose name I think is Andrew was around 4 when she disappeared. So, he’s around 12 now right? What is his life like? He probably no longer remembers the sound of Anna’s voice, or what it felt like to be held by her. Her parents did have to take the husband to court for visitation.
Anna has been the subject of so many podcast things. They range from making sense to wild theories like a recent one where the podcaster named Annie Elise made a stunning pronouncement about obviously Anna being jealous of her then little boy? I mean HUH? She also conflated Malvern Charlestown Township into Malvern Borough. This podcaster also seemed to the visits to Poland were unusual and why? I have three female friends who are Polish nationals by birth although US Citizens for decades at this point, and they are why I first took an interest. My friends ALL go back to Poland to visit. They ALL take their kids, etc. and still do so they also know their Polish heritage.
I also don’t think Anna was going to run away to Poland with her son and ditch an amazing career and house she created. I have always pondered if Anna was getting ready to exit a perhaps no longer so fabulous marriage. It happens.
I think it has been a long time since law enforcement and the District Attorney have seemed to take an interest here, rendering a woman with so much life left to live a cold case.
I get these cases can be impossible. But hi, hello, how about I am missing the feeling that anyone is trying or truly gives a darn at this point.
I think everyone deserves answers, her family and son most importantly. Say her name. Anna Maciejewska matters.
I don’t have much to add to this post. I am going to let the words of real people affected by this insanity speak for themselves.
It’s like this country has turned upside down. And it’s not just merely being able to say “Well it’s a new administration, we just have to get used to it.”
What did our founding fathers bleed, fight, and die for?
