The Lost Lady & the New Coffee Pot

We are huge coffee drinkers. We drink it morning, noon, and night, summer and winter and we just love it! Because we drink so much we go through a lot of coffee makers and find ourselves unboxing new ones often.

Several years ago, I bought a new coffee maker and couldn’t find the time to open it and get it set up until late at night. Knowing my family, I knew the importance of learning how to use it before sunrise the following morning! So, late that night, my house was quiet and everyone was asleep except me and my coffee maker. Directions spread all over the countertop, pieces everywhere, and me, bleary-eyed in my pajamas when I heard a tiny knock at our back door.

It was a very slight knock and neither of my dogs barked they just stood by the door. Odd.

I opened the door and to my surprise there was a lovely older woman standing in her pajamas. No shoes. I said, “Hello.” She responded with “I think I am lost.” Bless her dear sweet heart and OH MY GOSH! I invited her in, asked her to have a seat, and told her I’d be right back.

Frantically running into the bedroom I grabbed my sleeping husband and said, “Get up now! Put some clothes on! There’s a lost stranger in the kitchen!” Of course, he was terribly disoriented, “What?! What is going on?!”

When I returned to the kitchen, the sweet lady was just sitting there and each of my un-barking dogs were sitting beside her quietly. Dogs are so perceptive, don’t you think? They knew something was awry but they also seemed to know it was okay.

I asked her if I could make her a cup of tea, because I still didn’t know how to use the new coffee maker yet, and she said yes that she’d love that. I made the tea, then sat down and started talking with her while my husband called the police and tried to explain to them what was happening.

She couldn’t remember her name or where she lived. She didn’t know how long she had been walking. She wasn’t sure where she was. But she was so pleasant and happy whenever I asked a question. She would just respond simply with, “No. I’m not sure.” She asked me if we knew each other and commented about how much she liked my tiny and tidy kitchen. Sweet and sad, at the same time.

A wonderful police officer showed up and had a seat at the kitchen table with everyone. He asked many of the same questions I did and got the same answer, “No. I’m not sure.” The officer was so kind and patient with her, trying many questions to see if he could jog her memory but to no avail. Then, out of nowhere she said, “I have a son. His name is blah-blah-blah. And he lives in Ohio.” A clue! We slowly continued this line of questioning and found that her son worked as a police officer in a city in Ohio and then, she remembered his name! It was like playing the most bizarre game of Clue ever invented.

The police officer, in my kitchen, and my husband started googling the sons name and calling our local police station to gather information. Lo and behold, they found the son, found the phone number for his police station in Ohio, called, AND he was at work!! Amazing!

Our police officer started explaining to her son what happened and we could hear him scream, “What?! Oh my God, is she alright?! What happened?!” Our officer said, “Yes, she seems fine but disoriented. It’s okay they are nice people.”

The son explained to us that his mom lived several blocks away and was developing dementia. It seems that she got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, took a wrong turn in her home, and just walked right out her front door. Her son said that he and his siblings would be down the next day and see how they could help. Very sweet. Our police officer drove her home, where he found her housemates sound asleep.

What a surprising night! At this late hour, I decided we’d have to get to-go cups of coffee in a few hours! It had been an exhausting yet gratifying evening getting to help a neighbor.

We never heard from her again but were grateful that her children would be helping out from now on. They seemed as lovely as their sweet momma.

We were delighted and surprised when we received a huge bouquet of flowers and a beautiful thank you note from her children the next day. Goodness really is all around us if we take a moment to see it!

“Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” Anne Frank