I'm almost calm now. This evening my hubby and I were in our kitchen making cookies. A elderly woman we know who lives up the road about 2/10s of a mile shuffled past our kitchen window, which faces away from the road. From the look on her face, something was bad wrong. She was dressed as if she had just walked out of her house. It's "warm" today, high about 30.
Hubby went after her. She said, "I can hear you, but I can't see you." They were standing three feet from each other and she was looking right him. We helped her in the house; she had blood all over her hands and her face and clothes. Snow clung to her legs where she had fallen. She was incoherent. We thought she'd had an accident, with all the blood and likely a head injury. We figured her vehicle was just off the property since she didn't have her coat on. While hubby called 9-1-1, I got her covered up with blankets and tried to clean up the blood. She had cuts and scrapes on both sides of her hands, one was dripping blood.
The sheriff's deputies and the EMTs showed up within 20 minutes. The nearest town is 30 miles away. Fairly soon we believed she had had a stroke.
The possibilities of the worse happening:
- Until today, the temps have been 0 or below (the highs). Today's the warmest day in a couple weeks. She left the house in just what she was wearing.
- We're rarely in the kitchen since it's so cold and we don't cook that much. Our place is sprawling. If we hadn't been in the kitchen or if we had gone to town, we wouldn't have seen her and there's telling where she would have wandered--or for how long.
- She couldn't see. How did she make it out of her house, down an icy snowy road, across the cattle guard, and make it around the back side of the house, and we just happened to see her?
Something else that's freaky, we were desperately trying to find out her daughter's or her husband's phone numbers who are back east. She couldn't speak the telephone numbers and she tried to write the numbers using my finger instead of the pencil I tried to hand to her. A few minutes after the EMTs arrived, her daughter calls! The daughter couldn't reach her mother all day and was worried sick.
Thanks for letting me spew. Writing this thread and lots of hot toddy is helping.
We suspect, from what we found in her house when I went up there later, she'd had problems since yesterday. This sound kind of funky, but it's like someone guided her after she couldn't phone anyone. Go here. Turn here. Step over the cattle guard. Turn here. They'll see you. They'll take care of you.
Hubby went after her. She said, "I can hear you, but I can't see you." They were standing three feet from each other and she was looking right him. We helped her in the house; she had blood all over her hands and her face and clothes. Snow clung to her legs where she had fallen. She was incoherent. We thought she'd had an accident, with all the blood and likely a head injury. We figured her vehicle was just off the property since she didn't have her coat on. While hubby called 9-1-1, I got her covered up with blankets and tried to clean up the blood. She had cuts and scrapes on both sides of her hands, one was dripping blood.
The sheriff's deputies and the EMTs showed up within 20 minutes. The nearest town is 30 miles away. Fairly soon we believed she had had a stroke.
The possibilities of the worse happening:
- Until today, the temps have been 0 or below (the highs). Today's the warmest day in a couple weeks. She left the house in just what she was wearing.
- We're rarely in the kitchen since it's so cold and we don't cook that much. Our place is sprawling. If we hadn't been in the kitchen or if we had gone to town, we wouldn't have seen her and there's telling where she would have wandered--or for how long.
- She couldn't see. How did she make it out of her house, down an icy snowy road, across the cattle guard, and make it around the back side of the house, and we just happened to see her?
Something else that's freaky, we were desperately trying to find out her daughter's or her husband's phone numbers who are back east. She couldn't speak the telephone numbers and she tried to write the numbers using my finger instead of the pencil I tried to hand to her. A few minutes after the EMTs arrived, her daughter calls! The daughter couldn't reach her mother all day and was worried sick.
Thanks for letting me spew. Writing this thread and lots of hot toddy is helping.
We suspect, from what we found in her house when I went up there later, she'd had problems since yesterday. This sound kind of funky, but it's like someone guided her after she couldn't phone anyone. Go here. Turn here. Step over the cattle guard. Turn here. They'll see you. They'll take care of you.
