Hot day, lost lady

By Mandy Walton

Monday, July 20, 2009 | 12:09 p.m.

The story I’m about to relate makes my blood boil. Friday, it was 110 degrees. I was on Van Wagenen and saw a woman pull over to help an older lady who was in the street with a walker. I stopped my car to see if they needed help. The elderly lady was dressed in pink sweatpants, slippers, and had a sweatshirt and sweater on, as well as a knit cap. She moved very slowly, and it’s unclear how long she had been outside in the heat.

There are a few senior condos and a care facility in the area, but she told us she lived further down. She didn’t know her address.

When she told us she had two little boys that were with her, I called the police. She was clearly disoriented and very clammy. I also ran back to the vehicle I was in and grabbed a cup of water and had her take a drink of it.

The other woman and I tried to get her to sit in the shade while we waited for the paramedics. When a police officer arrived, just before the rescue vehicles, the officer asked the lady her date of birth. Her response? 1918!

While I had been annoyed that numerous vehicles must have passed this woman before the one who stopped, I was even angrier when I realized she was 91 years old.

She must be someone’s mother or grandmother. Wouldn’t you be grateful if someone stopped to help your mother or grandmother if she became disoriented and wandered away from home? So my question is, why did it take so long for someone to stop?

It doesn’t seem very logical to me that you wouldn’t be able to see a little old lady in a hot pink sweatsuit trying to cross Van Wagenen with a walker on a scorching day and that it wouldn’t raise a red flag. Shame on those who passed her by.

I can still smell the fragrance of the woman’s lotion that sweat out of her hands while I was trying to hold her up. Luckily, the paramedics arrived quickly. I don’t know where they took her or if she’s OK now.

What I do know is that all those people who speed up and down Van Wagenen every day, cell phones glued to the ear, trying to get wherever in a hurry, need to take a look around. Take a look around, and take action when you see someone in trouble.