by cromwell » 21 May 2023, 10:21
We had a bit of drama yesterday.
One of our neighbours down the road, David, is suffering from dementia. He and his wife still get out regularly but she has to be careful with him as he can wander off and get lost. A couple of years ago I brought him home when he was two or three miles away and walking away from his home. Other people have brought him home including on one occasion my wife and her sister, who had to support him to get him home.
David and his wife have carers coming in too. But yesterday one of them left having finished her shift, but forgot to lock the front door. David's wife was upstairs and when she came down he had gone; no sign of him anywhere. This would be about four in the afternoon. Cue the carers reappearing, the police turned up, neighbours went looking for him, the lot. Social media got involved; the local fb site had his picture on it and a description of what had happened.
Eventually at nine in the evening the police found David wandering down Westgate in Wakefield near the prison, where he used to work teaching the prisoners a trade. I can only think that he thought he was going to work. It's not clear how he got there, he had no bus pass or money and he can only walk very slowly, but there he was.
So a happy ending, well done to the police but the stress on his wife must have been off the scale.
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored" - Aldous Huxley