The Charles County Sheriff’s Office received an urgent and distressing call about a missing 81-year-old woman. Roberta has dementia but stays active and goes on a daily walk down the driveway. Unfortunately, one day she didn’t return and Roberta’s daughter feared that she would be lost.
She immediately notified 911 and also told them about her mom’s dementia and medical situation.
Roberta lives together with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter and usually always returns from her walk, but she often gets confused.
It didn’t take long before officers from the Charles County, Maryland Sheriff’s Department were dispatched to find the elderly woman. They assured Roberta’s daughter that she would be found – and they certainly lived up to their promise.
Five officers were sent to look for the grandmother. After about forty minutes, two officers were able to find her as she was slowly walking in the opposite direction on a calm walking path near a forest.
“I shouted her name and she yelled back, so we both ran toward her,” Sergeant Clarance Black told TODAY. “When we got to her, she had branches in her hair that we had to pull out and was confused as to why we were there.”
Instead of explaining to her that she had gone missing and that her daughter was looking for her, they simply told her that they were on a walk as well so that she wouldn’t get embarrassed or any more confused.
Officer Morrison walked beside her and escorted her to the police car, hand-in-hand.
During the walk, the officers engaged in some small talk with her to make Roberta feel a hundred percent comfortable. They talked about things in life, and they also noticed that Roberta was still pretty active. The officers wanted to know what the magic secret was to living a healthy and long life.
The woman responded with “Eat good and stay active.”
Roberta wandered off quite far, but the officers quickly returned her home. As you can imagine, Roberta’s family was immensely relieved when she came back.
“Roberta didn’t think it was a big deal and even said to her daughter ‘I’m fine, I took a walk with these nice officers,'” the Sergeant recalls. “We were just happy to bring her back to safety.”
The good and sensitive police deed certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Sergeant Black decided to take a picture of the woman and Officer Morrison hand-in-hand.
“It was cool to talk to someone that old who has experienced a lot of life and now lives with four generations,” Officer Morrison mentioned. “I’m really close with my grandma, so I was intrigued by her story.”
“It was such a simple gesture, so I thought it would be nice to have the photo to remember it by,” Sergeant Black added. “It was also neat to think about the fact that there’s a 60-year age gap between them.”
The photograph has gone massively viral and has been seen by millions.
Over 222,000 people have liked the image on the Charles County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.
“We often talk about the rewards of police work. On Friday, we captured a moment,” they wrote on Facebook.
“Officers responded to a 911 call from a woman who reported her 81-year-old mother missing. It seems her mother left her house to take her daily walk up and down the driveway, but when she didn’t return, things got a bit scary because the woman’s mother has dementia. Officers P. DeBoe, C. Caywood, B. Morrison, Sgt. C. Black, and Cpl. C. Clevenger and his K9 partner responded to the scene and began a search of the heavily wooded area.”
“After 40 minutes, the woman was found. At first, she seemed confused at the sudden appearance of police officers on the tree-lined trail, and she asked if the officers were out taking a walk too. They quietly replied ‘Yes,” after all, it was a beautiful day. And then she seemed relieved and told them she had lost her way. “No problem,” said Officer Morrison who then gently took her hand and, along with the other officers walked her back to her house. Along the way, the officers made small talk with the woman, to make her feel at ease. When asked what the key to a long, healthy life was, the woman replied, ‘Eat good and stay active.'”
“Officers encounter different situations every day. Some good, some not so good. In this case, a frightening situation for the family ended happily. For that, they were thankful. For us, it’s the rewarding part of policing.”
What an absolutely wonderful gesture by these police officers, and it definitely shows that this is the correct way to deal with people suffering from dementia. Such a sweet story!
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