| Back O' The Page Stories 4/07
By Scott CoverdaleI was asked by another agency to give some structural opinion about a house that they were planning to do a lot of work on. The phone wasn't working, so I decided to just stop by. I knocked on the door and clomped around the roof a little bit, but didn't see that anyone was home. As I prepared to leave, I heard a small voice coming from the back yard. I explored, and found an elderly woman crying. She had been sick that morning and went outside to get some fresh air and had inadvertently locked herself out. The gate to the yard was locked with a chain and so she couldn't get anywhere. There was no hose bib, so she had been without water all day as well. Her son was supposed to be home by 2:00, but it was past that already. I went to Walgreen's and bought her some water and some trail mix. The lady has diabetes, and was well out of her eating schedule. I hung out with her for another half hour or so, trying to find a non-destructive way into the home, but she implored me to go, certain that her son would be back from Nogales at any moment. I told her to call me when she got back inside the house, and that if I didn't hear from her, I would send someone back later on. She never called, so I asked Tim to go by her house on his way home after work. He did, and found her still trapped in the backyard. He helped her over the masonry wall (I wish I had a camera for that one) and took her to the home of an acquaintance. The phone is still not working, so I don't know when her son came home. I do know that she was glad to get out of the back yard.
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