As family and friends gathered to celebrate her 98th birthday, Jean Knox paused to consider her recent brush with danger.
The sharp senior, who is hard of hearing and confined to a wheelchair, was awakened in her bed around 4:40 a.m. Dec. 29 during a break-in at her Sunnidale Road home.
"I wasn't really frightened at the time but the more I've thought about it since, the more frightened I've become because I was so alone," said Knox. "I cant get out of bed by myself. I was a hopeless victim. But I'm fine."
Knox and her husband Victor built the house themselves in 1951 and raised their two children there.
Victor died 15 years ago and Knox has maintained the home since then and has no intention of leaving.
The night of the break-in, Knox was asleep in bed when she was awakened by something - she thinks either the smashing of her back door as the burglars broke in or lights on in her home.
"I can't move in bed," she said. "I've had polio and so I just lay there trying to figure out what the noise was."
Next thing she knew, there was someone in her room, beside her bed.
"Standing in the dark, I could see a silhouetted figure standing beside me, going through drawers of my dresser," Knox recalled.
"All the time I was lying in bed pretending to be asleep and actually I think sometimes I was asleep. I had been quite satisfied they weren't going to find any money."
Knox says she doesn't keep any cash in her house but the burglars went through every drawer and ransacked her home regardless. Unfortunately, that wasn't all.
Daylight revealed the extensive damage and the 'terrible mess' the suspects left behind.
"I hadn't known they were throwing all this food around," said Knox. "They got into my fridge and everything that poured, they poured. Ketchup, oil, maple syrup."
They even poured maple syrup on the helpless senior.
"There was a puddle of it on my chest," she said. "They had done that in the dark and I thought, I'm bleeding. It wasn't blood it was maple syrup. But it might've been. That's what worries me."
Her son Ian called the break-in 'disturbing' and the reason for the vandalism is a head-scratcher for everyone.
Knox is staying at the Chartwell Barrington Retirement Residence for several weeks while her home gets cleaned up.
Carpets have to be replaced, the stucco ceiling has to be repainted where the burglars smeared peanut butter and all her furniture has been removed.
Two teenaged boys from Barrie, aged 16 and 17 were arrested and charged in connection with the break-in.
If convicted, Knox thinks they're too young for jail.
"In some ways they should talk to other young people and tell them how foolish some of their acts are as young people. If they have a police record they carry with them for the rest of their lives, so why do something stupid."
None of the allegations have been tested in court.
The resilient senior appears to be moving on from her ordeal and was looking forward to celebrating yet another milestone birthday surrounded by loved ones.
"I'm enjoying life," she said. "Getting older. I'm 98 now."
