I think this story was meant to be a profile in courage of a woman bucking what society demands and forging her own path. Instead, it appears more to be a story of some crazy old bitch who craps in a pot. Either way, meet Violet Hobaugh, an old lady who lives without electricity and water.

Ninety-two-year-old Violet Hobaugh does not flinch at the prospect of a winter without electricity or running water.
She has already been through several.

Hobaugh, who lives alone in a weather-beaten house in Lebanon County, has become a local legend for her reclusive ways and her hostility toward many of the people who have offered to help her. She told a reporter, years ago, that an electric company crew that came to her house was actually “casing” the place.

She vowed to be ready for them, with a crowbar, if they returned.

“I say what I think,” Hobaugh said recently. “I don’t pull any punches.”

Age, Hobaugh said, has made her solitary daily activities take longer.

But, she said, with mental focus, “You can do anything.”

Thank God for this old woman because without her, I would have been totally adrift in life. If you work hard enough, you too can be just like an old woman who lives in abject poverty amidst her own feces and, seemingly, complete shambles. It’s like the fairy tale little girls whose parents can’t afford Barbie dolls always dream of!

[Pennlive]