I had a very interesting experience earlier today that I can’t help but attribute to some sort of divine intervention. It also broke my heart.
I was sitting around the house and, all of a sudden, I just decided to get up and go for a walk around the park. This, in itself, was unusual, as lately I’ve been more inclined to hem and haw and have my mind racing with anxious thoughts which means procrastinating for, sometimes, hours before finally dragging my ass out of the house. But, in this case, I just hopped up, put on socks and shoes, grabbed my keys and some peanuts for the critters and headed over to the park. Just after I crossed Patterson, I noticed an elderly lady walking, sort of hunched over and she was carrying a bag in her left hand and using a cane with her right – and she was walking really fast for someone of her age and apparent physical condition.
I stopped a couple of times to chuck peanuts to the squirrels and kept noticing the lady for some reason. I finally caught up to her and said hi to her and said, “Wow, I didn’t think I was going to catch up to you – you walk really fast!” and she just sort of chuckled a little and I went on my way. I stopped at the first pond to throw a few nuts to the ducks and I noticed the lady pass me and go over towards the Pitch ‘n Putt shack. Then, a few minutes later, she came back in my direction and headed back up the path we had both just come down. I didn’t really think anything more of it and headed on around the rest of my usual path through the park.
For the first time in a while, I wasn’t really feeling anxious, so I wanted to take my time and enjoy being outside. When I got to the tennis courts, rather than just walk past them and head home, I decided to stop and watch some of the people play for a few minutes. I walked to the far end and there was a picnic table there, so I sat there for about 10 minutes watching some of the people play. Then, just as spontaneously as I’d sat down, I got up and started walking towards the crosswalk when I looked across the street and saw the lady there again, just about to cross the street as if she was heading back into the park again. Right away, this seemed really odd. She looked to be in her late 60s/early 70s and I had started my walk in the park more than 45 minutes ago, so it didn’t seem right to me she’d be in that vicinity again so long from the time I had originally seen her.
I hurried across the street and approached her and asked if she was lost or looking for something. She was very calm and receptive to talking to me but seemed a little disoriented or something. I asked if I could help get her home or if she was waiting for someone to pick her up. She said something about her son and then pulled a cell phone out of a bag she had around her waist. I asked if she wanted me to call her son and she said yes, but his number wasn’t in the phone, at least not according to the names in the phonebook. So, I asked if she had anything with her address on it so I could help her get home. She was digging in the bag she was carrying and I helped her sit down on one of the big boulders they have on either side of the sidewalk. She pulled out a little return-address tag with her name (T Strom) and address on it, which was at the high-rise that was at the end of Maywood.
I could have just helped her get back to her building, but I was worried that she’d just come out again and wander around to God-knows-where and that something might happen to her. So, I used the cell phone to call 911 and told the police the situation and asked if they could send someone over to help find out who her son was and let him know what was going on. They sent a very very very very VERY yummy female officer (Officer Cummings – I mean……that is just TOO easy to make a joke about! LOL) over and I talked to her when she drove up to tell her that I was worried that the lady may have Alzheimer’s or something and that she might just wander off and be mugged by one of the addicts that hangs around the park or something.
The (did I mention YUM-MY!??) officer asked her what her son’s name was, where he lived, etc. and then radioed the station to get some info to try to find a number for him. She said she would make sure Mrs. Strom got home OK and I asked her to call me and let me know what happened. I came home and she called me less than an hour later to tell me she found Mrs. Strom’s son and that he said he’s in the process of getting her into a care facility and was just waiting for the paperwork. She thanked me for having helped and said that the son was very appreciative. I asked if Mrs. Strom did, in fact, have Alzheimer’s and she said that he said she was in the early stages of it.
Heartbreaking.
But, I have to say, I KNOW that the timing of the whole thing was the work of divine intervention. Just the fact that I took particular notice of this one person several different times AND the fact that, in spite of having NEVER stopped at the tennis courts in the hundreds of times I have walked the same route around the park, I stopped this time for the exact length of time needed for me to see her about to cross the street towards the park again. Also, I didn’t have my cell phone with me, but this lady just happened to have one with her? How odd is that just in itself???? And, of all people who would notice all these things, it was me, who has a huge soft spot for old ladies because of all the time I spent with my grandmothers and who, by nature, is someone who wants to help people if I can.
No matter how skeptical one might be, things like this make you KNOW there is something more powerful at work in this world.
While it may seem odd for me, of all people, to say this, I am so happy that God chose me to work through in this instance. It breaks my heart to think of what might have happened had I not been in that place at that time. I feel grateful to have been able to make a difference.
I have a bunch of other stuff to write about, but I want to honour this experience by not mucking it up with other stuff, so I will put it in a separate post later.