So, while walking back from the shops on my lunch break today, I saw a little child waddling further down the road and crying. She appeared to be following an adult who was a little further on still, but when the adult disappeared into one of the houses along that road and showed no signs of acknowledging the child, i was a bit perplexed. Was the kid hers and momma had just had enough of the little girl's attention seeking behavior? Was the kid lost and scared and trying to get anyone to help it? I could have stopped to ask if she was okay, but the girl had gone to the door of the house that the adult entered, which was still ajar, and cried down the halls without looking at us. So, okay, presumably the kid just wanted mom to pay it some attention and nothing was really wrong. four hours later, I'm walking home from work and as I pass by a rest home, I see an odd scene. a jamacian chap is holding the arm of an elderly woman who's also being fussed over by a younger woman in a uniform. I assume the old dear just fell down and they're going to help escort her into the home. then the uniformed woman disappears into the house and closes the door, leaving the jamacian man, still holding the old woman and speaking softly to her. at this point the lady looks around and makes eye contact with me. "Sir, will you help me?" the jamacian, still only looking at her, shakes his dreads and just mutters 'no no no' in a steady rhythm. "They won't let me-" but the rest was lost in the haze of my bad hearing. the jamacian tutted 'no no no' gently. i kept walking. "Please!" by this point, i was on the other side of a hedge, and i really had no idea what was going on - lord knows when I used to visit my dad's mother in a nursing home, the halls would be echoing with one case of senile dementia or another begging for help or convinced that the nurses were trying to kill them (and, frankly, in that hell hole, they probably WERE - if only by negligence) so, i finished my walk home kind of feeling like a coward. see, i don't like people. i'm not very social. but i don't like not HELPING if someone needs it... and what if these two incidents weren't as innocent as they may have appeared... ...and i just walked on by?
My mum is a nurse in a small cottage hospital. A lot of her work is on a ward which cares predominantly for elderly people, and people with brain damage or mental illness such as dementia. She told me about a woman she cares for, who suffers from dementia. She once managed to escape as far as the front gate, which leads onto a public pathway. She caused quite a disturbance by pleading with passers by for help, saying that the nurses were tying her up and things like that. Obviously it was nothing of the sort, and i'm sure the passers by would have experienced a similarly uncomfortable dilemma to yours. My mum went out to get her, and had to tell the people it was ok, that there was nothing wrong. I think your situation is likely to have been the same. If the nurse was there when the man was there, and she was unconcerned enough to leave the man and the woman together, then you shouldn't worry. It's beyond what's expected of people to interfere in what's most likely to be an innocent situation. We'd be intervening all the time into situations where the only thing making it look the slightest bit dodgy is a lack of knowledge on our part. Sometimes it is better to be safe than sorry and offer help; it would give you reassurance if nothing else. But to think about such things all the time would be to see potentially dodgy situations everywhere.
Jamacian dude was an orderly if not a nurse - i should have made that more clear. but, this woman seemed in possession of her faculties. i dunno. that's not really a safe judgement from 20 yards away
Probably just as well you didn't go up to the kid. A man in a big coat with a beard? You'd have been lynched.
Admittedly, that would have made a better story. Albeit made a little more out of date after a few hours/days/years in jail...
Well, I'm afraid it would have been a problem to make sure of that up close as well. What you would have seen is a frightened old lady, without knowing the reasons for her fear. It could have been people kidnapping her, and it could have been her imagination. You could have only made sure of the facts if you stopped for a conversation, and even then it would be uncertain. I think you would have felt better if you stopped and asked what gives, man, but I'm not sure if the event truly required that either.
