What is the claim in the story Marigolds by Eugenia W. Collier?

There could be
many claims (themes) identified in "Marigolds" by Eugenia W. Collier, but one that is
stated explicitly is that innocence and compassion cannot co-exist. In order to be truly
compassionate toward someone's suffering, a person needs to have personally suffered, too.
 

The story is told by an adult first-person narratorLizabethwho is looking
back on an act of childish cruelty that took place when she was fourteen. Lizabeth and her
younger brother, Joey, are frustrated by circumstances they cannot control: the summer heat,
their family's poverty, their mother's absence, the "formlessness of [their] summer
days." To alleviate their boredom, they decide to annoy their neighbor, Miss Lottie,
because "annoying Miss Lottie was always fun." Miss Lottie has a lot of misfortune in
her lifeher...