Postby The Dirt » Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:57 pm
The redhead had herself some excitement last night. About 8 PM, the neighbor 200 yards to our southwest called and asked if all our kids were accounted for, because she could hear someone off in the distance yelling “HELP, I’m STUCK”. Stepping outside, Kim could hear it too, off to our east. Thinking that maybe Aaron’s young friend (who also rides a dirt bike and a 4-wheeler) had rolled and was caught under his vehicle, she grabbed a flashlight, and she and the kids hurried across the field in the direction of the calls, trying to pinpoint the direction, but they had now grown too intermittent or inaudible. They retreated to the house and got the SUV, and again drove across the field, this time continuing onto the neighbor’s property to the east, alerting Aaron’s friend’s dad, (Terry) who got on his 4-wheeler. Together, they started down the road that runs down through the hollow that intervenes between our hill and the next one to the east, and stopped and turned off their engines. They again heard the pleas, still coming from the east, so they quickly backtracked up to the road that turned east over the next hill. This is now 8:30, clouded, no streetlamps, and so black as coal that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face if you’re away from outdoor house lamps. Kim went to the first house on the north side of the road and started banging on the door to inquire of them whether they had heard anything, while Terry decided to take his 4-wheeler out into the field. Minutes later, he found the source of the calls for help (how, I don’t know, in the dark, in the tall grass, and her sitting down), an 84 year old lady who lived on the south side of the road catty-corner from the house where Kim was knocking. At 6 PM, she had walked across the street with her TV remote to ask her neighbor if he could fix it. Somehow, in walking back, she had missed her house and wandered some 200 yards into this fallow, un-mown, and brush-covered field, and had apparently stumbled and fallen. Terry saw blood, and yelled for Kim to bring her car into the field, (she being a nurse) while he called 911. Turned out she had lacerated her arm, but had gotten blood over her chest and lap, so it looked worse than it was, but fearing worse injury, (eg, broken hip), Kim had her sit still until help arrived while she talked to the emergency line on the phone. While trying to explain the lady’s condition as best she could ascertain, she mentioned the word ‘confusion’, to which the lady protested “I’m not confused”, which had us all laughing after the fact, because she was found incapacitated and bleeding in the far reaches of a field in the black of night, with a TV remote in her hand!
As luck would have it, a Millville emergency truck was passing below in the valley, and heard the call, and within minutes, was on the scene with arc lamps, as were two ambulances, one each from Orangeville and Benton.
So off she went to the ER. No updates yet, but she lives alone, her house was in plain sight from the neighbor she visited, she had walked a distance WAY beyond what would have been reasonable to re-reach her own house, and the question remains about whether something acute happened that affected her cognitive processes, as she is well known and liked in the environs (though houses are scarce), as she is frequently seen walking her dog and waving to all passers-by, and has seemed to do well living independently.
So, kudos to the redhead and kids, and the neighbors that alerted and mobilized. Had she gotten much further, she would have been over the crest of the hill and headed toward deep woods, where her voice may not have been heard, and where she would have been exposed all night. It could have easily had a grim ending.
How ‘bout it!
What a gift you have!
