Abbie sees a ghost

Shortly before I retired from the Police Bureau I was working in the Personnel Division and had a college intern helping me complete personnel background investigations while earning college credits.  She was 19 years old and studying criminal justice.  I will call her Abbie.

Abbie came to work on Monday morning looking ashen white and ill.  I inquired how she was feeling and her response was the socially acceptable; “OK, fine, thank you.”  I could tell she wasn’t fine so about 30 minutes later I inquired again how she was feeling and let her know that if she needed to go home that was OK.  She started to cry softly.  We sat down and while I was trying to find out what was wrong I noticed she was trembling and speaking with a shaky voice.

 

Abbie told me a young couple from her church was going to Europe for two weeks and offered to pay her to live in their home while they were gone and feed their pet cat and dog.  Needing some extra money, like most college kids, she accepted their offer. Also, there was free food, a hot tub, and a big home to live in.

These friends were leaving on Friday evening so Abbie went to their home just prior to their departure to receive final instructions on how to care for their pets and home.  After saying goodbye to her friends, they departed for the airport and Abbie settled in, ate dinner, watched TV for a couple of hours, then played the piano.  It was now time to feed the cat in the kitchen.

 

As Abbie was walking from the piano room through the front room to the kitchen she passed by a large picture window.  In the reflection of the window she saw a man and a woman standing behind her on a staircase.

Abbie was startled and very frightened as she now realized she was looking at a man in a military uniform and a young woman next to him.  Abbie whirled around to confront them and all she saw was a bare wall with a couple of small pictures on it.  She looked back into the window and again saw their reflection but this time they smiled at her.  She was so scared she could barely speak to ask them, “May I help you?” When they didn’t answer she again looked behind her only to see a bare wall and no staircase.

Too frightened to stay in the house she went outside and the pet dog began to howl.  While she was outside she looked around to see if some of her college friends were trying to scare her.  There was no one outside nor was there any evidence of someone trying to trick her.

 

Abbie went directly home too afraid to return inside the house.  After sharing this ghost story with her parents they assured her she had just spooked herself and then became too scared to stay alone in a strange house.  They told her she had just imagined these ghosts in her mind, so they became real to her.

On Saturday, Abbie invited a friend to spend the night with her and warned her about what she had seen the night before.  The friend thought this was great adventure.  When it was time to feed the cat they both walked through the front room together and were shocked and startled to see the same reflections in the window of a man in a military uniform with the young woman standing next to him on a staircase.  It only took one sighting to end this sleepover for her friend. The friend was “out of there,” never to return. 

Again, Abbie left and went home, being too afraid to stay in the house.  On Sunday, she took her mother with her and they went in the back door to avoid the front room, fed the cat then immediately left the house.  Her mother was not going to have anything to do with ghosts.

By Monday morning, Abbie was an emotional wreck when she came to work. She was worried because she wasn’t keeping her commitment to care for her vacationing friend’s home and pets.

 

I inquired about the soldier’s uniform to try and determine what war he was affiliated with and what type of dress the young woman was wearing.  Abbie didn’t know uniforms of different wars so I did a Google search and found pictures and showed them to her.  She immediately picked the Confederate uniform of the Civil War.  Next, I showed her a picture of a Southern Bell dress and Abbie told me the dress worn by the young woman was the same style but different colors.  She also told me the woman looked like she young, maybe in her late 20’s.

 

Obtaining the address of the residence I next went to the Property Tax Division of the county and looked up the property’s ownership history.  I was shocked at what I found so I made copies of the records to show Abbie.  The first owners of this house had moved into it in 1880 about 15 years after the Civil War ended in 1865, and the soldier was a veteran of the Confederate Army.

 

Abbie ask me to go with her to feed the cat and dog that evening, so I called my wife to see if she would go with us since I didn’t think it would be appropriate to go alone with a young college coed to a haunted house.  My wife thought about it for a few minutes, then said she didn’t want to see any ghosts or get involved with someone else’s property without their knowledge or consent.

 

I was disappointed but it was getting late and the cat and dog needed fed so Abbie called her mother to meet her at the house.  They avoided going into the front room and for the rest of the two weeks they just fed the pets and left.

 

When the vacationing home owners got home Abbie told them what happened.  They dismissed her story because they had not experienced any similar events and suggested she had used this ghost sighting as an excuse not to stay in their home.  They only paid her for feeding the pets since she didn’t stay in their home as agreed.

 

Those hearing this story may rationalize this as an imagined event for Abbie and her girlfriend but it will always be a real ghost encounter for Abbie.  A year later, my wife and I attended Abbie’s wedding and we all had a good laugh together recalling this event that had frightened Abbie so badly.

 

Ghosts are people like you and me, but in spirit form without a body, like the Holy Ghost.  After Christ’s resurrection his disciples thought they had seen a ghost when He appeared to them.   Luke24: 37 “But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.”  

As long as there has been recorded history there have been sightings of good and evil spirits. Many evil spirits never received a body and now desire to be a tenant in our body. We must be careful not to invite or allow them to share our body. One man allowed a legion of evil spirits to occupy his body and eventually he no longer had control of his body, they did.

Luke 8: 

27 And when he (Jesus) went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.

28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. (note: the spirits that possessed this man did not have a veil put over their minds like we did when we were born.  We are to live by faith but they knew Jesus was the Son of God because they do not have a veil over their minds.)  

29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.

30 And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.

31 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. (Outer darkness where bad guys live)

32 And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. (These spirits wanted a body so bad they would live in the body of a pig.)

  33 Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.

(The pigs would rather give up their body than share it with an evil spirit so they drown themselves in the lake)

It’s fun to tell ghost stories, but remember ghosts are real.  They may invite themselves to the party. 

Jilted Lover

I was working a 10 hour shift from 6 PM to 4 AM and had just begun my watch when I was crusing down 82^nd Avenue, minding my own business, just being content to let folks know I was on patrol when suddenly I saw two cars racing towards me at break neck speed.  They were trying to run each other off the road or into some other car. 

In an attempt to stop this insane behavior I threw on my overhead lights to let them know they were now under the watchful eye of the police.  When the lead driver saw me he braked hard turning into a well know tavern that attracted a rough crowd and had large pot holes for a parking lot.  The man and woman in this vehicle quickly jumped out of their car and ran into the tavern to seek refuge among friends.  At the same time, the other car tried to follow them into the parking lot but was going too fast when he hit one of the large pot holes flipping the vehicle on its top and slid into the other car.  As I was exiting my patrol car I called for Code 3 cover and fire rescue.  

This man (I will call him Hard Hat) crawled out of the driver’s door window.  He was very muscular looking, rough and tough, with huge arms and a barrel chest.  He was wearing well worn construction clothing covered with cement dust indicating he was a concrete cutter.  He also had a baseball bat and was screaming for the wimp (the other driver) to come out of the tavern and face him like a man.  By now tavern patrons were boiling into the parking lot to see what was going on.  A crowd of 40 or more were gathering and I was very concerned many of them would be Hard Hat’s friends.

   

I got between Hard Hat and the tavern door ordering Hard Hat to put the bat down and submit to questioning for threatening to kill the other man with the bat. When he saw I meant business he turned and walked to 82^nd Avenue and stuck out his thumb hitchhiking for a ride.  I couldn’t believe someone would stop to pick him up but sure enough a motorist attempted to stop for him until he saw me waving him off.  I then told Hard Hat he was under arrest for failing to perform the duties of a driver involved in an accident since he was trying to leave the scene of the accident.

 

I also told him that I considered his bat to be a deadly weapon and if he didn’t drop it I was going to shoot him.  He threw the bat towards me missing my head as it landed in a large blackberry patch on the side of the parking lot.  That was good because I knew he couldn’t retrieve it and no one else could get to it.  I was going to have trouble containing this suspect and the crowd was now full circle around us egging Hard Hat on.

Fire rescue had arrived but they were not inclined to rescue me or get involved so they just watched. The circle was tightening and there was nowhere for Hard Hat or myself to go except face to face.  I kept stalling hoping cover officers would soon arrive; I could hear their sirens in the distance.  Once again I ordered Hard Hat to submit to arrest but this time he quickly put his right hand in the small of his back as if he was reaching for a weapon.  I drew my revolver and was waiting for the slightest glimmer of metal before I shot at him.  I was very concerned as we were surrounded by tavern patrons that were now in our cross fire.  I felt like this was a showdown at the OK Corral and lead would soon be flying.

 

I ordered him to show me his hands and to get down on the ground but instead he quickly threw both hands in front of him in a shooters stance.  In this split second I didn’t see gun metal so I didn’t shoot.  I then felt he was trying to get me to shoot him to show the women in the other car his true love for her.  Next he put his left hand behind his back and advanced towards me and when he was about five feet from me he again swung both hands around like he had a weapon while positioning himself in a shooters stance.  Again, I didn’t see gun metal so I didn’t shoot.

I was close enough now to Hard Hat that I knew I had to engage him in a physical contest of strength to subdue and arrest him.  Boy was I in trouble! I holster my weapon as I moved towards him grabbing his right arm and tripping him to the ground.  Once on the ground I got on top of him and wrenched his arm behind him and put one handcuff on his right wrist.  While I was doing this he did a one armed push up with me on this back, with his left arm!  I knew then I was really in trouble and quickly decided I needed to do something before he got control of me. 

I made a tactical error at this point thinking I could smack him in the head with the butt of my revolver.  As I was swinging it towards his head he ducked just enough that my arm hit his head causing my service revolver to fly through the air and into the crowd.  I ordered one of the firefighters to pick up the weapon and put it in his large turnout coat pocket for safe keeping.  I said it with enough authority he assisted as requested.

I had a boot gun but there was no way I was going to be able to get to it at this point.  I struggled to get Hard Hat’s left arm behind his back to handcuff him but he was too strong.  I could still hear sirens coming in the distance but they were not close enough.  At last, one of the ambulance medics stepped in and helped me pull his left arm behind him to get him handcuffed.  All of the time I was wrestling with Hard Hat I was afraid someone from the crowd would jump onto my back to help rescue him from being arrested. 

Finally, cover officers arrived and helped me load Hard Hat into my patrol car, because he was not volunteering to cooperate in any way.  Cover officers found the couple from the other vehicle and learned the woman was Hard Hat’s sometimes girlfriend and when he saw her in the other guy’s car he flipped out, made a wild U-turn and tried to run them off the road.  

As I checked Hard Hat’s criminal record, I learned he had been arrested just two days earlier for carrying a concealed weapon on his belt in the small of his back.  At times like this I often wondered if being a grocery bagger wouldn’t be a better vocation.

 

Loyalty in intimate relationships is important to harmonious living.  I had a case where one jilted lover put a car bomb in the new boyfriend’s car and when he opened the door it killed him.  The jilted lover went to the penitentiary for the rest of his life. The Lord understood the strength of passion in relationships and from the beginning of time has commanded us to not commit adultery or fool around with someone else’s companion. 

The Lord tells us many times in the scriptures:

Matt 5:27 Thou shalt not commit adultery: 

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ...

To learn more about the importance of keeping Heavenly Father's commandments and to have peace in our lives and relationships click on Mormon.org

Fallen, but not forever

I was working the afternoon watch on a beautiful Memorial Day.  I drove down a busy avenue to my district and this avenue hosts all the vices known to mankind.   I saw the usual assortment of thieves, prostitutes, and drug dealers lurking in their haunts.  I saw two hookers about to pick up a john (a person who solicits a prostitute) so I got on the tail of the john and he suddenly wasn’t so interested.  Dope dealers moved into the shadows and car thieves that were hanging around a 7-11 convenience store (waiting for someone to go inside without shutting off their car) went indoors themselves.  Many of these miscreants would be rousted before the night was over. 

As I was focusing my attention on a known burglar with a large TV in the back seat of his car, 911 dispatched me to check on the welfare of a man acting strangely in a nearby National Military Memorial Cemetery.  When I arrived thousands of miniature American flags waved in the wind covering the hillsides of the cemetery.  Memorial Day visitors were paying tribute to fallen soldiers and loved ones. 

A grounds keeper contacted me at the main office and gave me a map to an area near the top of the cemetery where he had observed a grieving young man, in his early 20’s, behaving  strangely by one of the graves.  The ground keeper told me this man had been in the cemetery for several hours drinking beer, crying and ranting near a headstone. 

Mess Kit

He also reported that he brought shoe polish and was spit polishing a pair of military boots that he placed uniformly beside the grave marker.  He was arranging a mess kit with the knife, fork and spoon at strict right angles to the pan and he had several T-shirts rolled up over beer cans that were placed symmetrically side by side.  He had taken off a military shirt that he had worn and had shredded it into one inch strips with a Ka-bar knife.  The grounds keeper also told me he last saw the young man walking into a wooded tree area on the edge of the cemetery carrying a cotton rope, but when he didn’t come out when he thought he should, the grounds keeper called the police.  

Ka-bar knife

I located the grave and read the headstone noting the deceased was a decorated military veteran of WWII and Korea and that he had recently died.  The items described by the ground keeper were as he reported and the Ka-bar knife was stabbed through the shredded military shirt sticking it to the ground. 

There were several empty beer cans strewn around on the road near the grave.  Alcohol seems to be associated with numbed senses and bad judgment, so I knew I would have to go into the woods to find this young man, whom I’ll call Jerry. 

When I found Jerry he had taken his own life.  As I lowered Jerry’s muscular body to the ground, that was now lifeless, I thought: “what a waste of a life.”  I later learned that Jerry admired his grandfather as a decorated military hero, that he wanted to be like him, and had spent a lot of time with him.   Jerry also could not come to grips with the thought of not being with his grandpa anymore.

 If Jerry had understood better that Christ died on the cross and was resurrected so that we all will be resurrected, he possibly could have endured missing his grandfather for the season of his mortal life.  Jesus Christ has told us in John 11: 25 … I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

 Amulek teaches us in the Book of Alma chapter 11:

 42 Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death.

  43 The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time …  44 Now, this restoration shall come to all ...

Let’s all have greater faith and hope in Jesus Christ.  Then we can share our faith to help comfort those who have lost a loved one.  To learn more about the resurrection and God’s plan of happiness click on Mormon.org

He didn't make it

Was it an accident, a murder or a suicide?  I had to decide quickly to determine who should be called to assist at the crime scene.  It was just getting dark when 911 dispatched  me to investigate a pedestrian that had been struck by two vehicles on a busy four lane metropolitan boulevard that had a double guard rail separating opposing traffic.  We’ll call him Wayne.

My first job was to determine if the fire department and ambulance company should be cancelled since they are dispatched at the same time police are sent.   As soon as I saw the pedestrian I knew there was NO WAY there could be any life remaining so I cancelled the fire rescue and ambulance then requested the County Coroner respond.  The coroner is responsible for the investigation and determination of the cause and manner of all sudden, violent, or unusual deaths.

I also requested two additional patrol units to block all traffic and divert traffic off of the two boulevard lanes so an investigation could be safely completed.  As I was examining the crime scene, I saw a pair of handcuffs in the path of the victim.  I spoke to the driver of a large Cadillac that had hit Wayne. He told me a Ford Ranchero first hit the pedestrian in the lane closest to the double median guard rail that divides the four lanes, knocking Wayne into his lane of traffic. This driver told me there was no way he could avoid hitting Wayne.

I obtained a description of the hit and run vehicle and radioed the information for all cars to apprehend the driver and seize the vehicle for processing.  Based on what I was observing there would be significant damage to the right front headlight and fender.

While I was investigating the accident, I noticed a Ford Ranchero with only one working headlight sitting on the opposite side of the boulevard where several cars had stopped (rubber-necking) to see what was happening. I radioed for another police unit to make contact with this suspect and sure enough it was our suspect vehicle.

 

This driver, Jack, explained that he was scared and drove off but his conscience got the better of him so he returned to the crime scene.  However, he didn’t have the courage to contact me because he had been drinking and had not stopped at the scene of the accident.  Jack told me he was on his way home from work and had stopped at a bar for a couple of beers (it is always just a couple of beers).  I now contacted our fatal traffic accident investigators to process Jack for vehicular homicide and book him into jail.

Next I interviewed a witness and based on what the witness told me I contacted detectives so they also could process the crime scene because now Wayne was possibly a homicide victim. This witness told me he saw Wayne jump out of the back seat of a four door sedan that had two men sitting in the front seat as the car slowed in traffic.  Wayne was handcuffed as he ran through heavy traffic then jumped the median barrier into fast moving traffic going the opposite direction and was hit by the Ford Ranchero knocking him in front of the Cadillac.

• Were friends driving Wayne to a mental health hospital because he was suicidal and had agreed to be handcuffed for everyone’s safety?  No one ever came forward to claim Wayne’s remains and his ex girlfriend thought he was suicidal when she knew him.  
• Earlier in the afternoon a private security guard had arrested and handcuffed a shoplifter that got away.  The guard said the handcuffs did not match his pair.     
• No local law enforcement agency had a prisoner escape this day.
• Detectives told me their investigation indicated it may have been a drug deal gone bad. Perhaps the buyers ripped off the drugs that Wayne was selling and were going to drop him off in the woods somewhere.  Instead, Wayne took his chances by running for his life across the busy boulevard but, he didn't make it.  

Helaman 9: 15 Now, as for the murder of this man, we know not who has done it; and only this much we know, we ran and came according as ye desired, and behold he was dead ….

This case was never solved. So what do you think? Was it an accident? A murder? Or a suicide?

When the Lord comes again will you be running towards Him or away from Him. Will you stumble and fall as you run away from Him into the darkness. Or, will your hands be free to reach out to His mercy and forgiveness because you have not shackled yourself with sin.  
We all need to heed Amulek’s warning in Alma 34: For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

                  To read more about Jesus Christ and preparing to meet Him see Mormon.org.

New Year's Eve Bandits

      Happy New Year

It was New Year’s Eve and I didn’t have enough seniority to get the evening off.  My wife didn’t want to sit home alone, so we hired a baby sitter so she could ride with me on patrol.  However, after this night of adventure she never rode with me again.

It was a blustery cool night with high winds. Our first call was to contact Rob who was waiting in the precinct lobby and was convinced his future father in law was going to kill him. Rob had been in a bar and accidentally (yeah sure) met his ex girlfriend and was socializing with her when his fiancée found them together. Loyalty is important to the fiancée's family so Rob was sure that he was going to be a dead man soon.

Rob’s fear and terror were so real it frightened my wife considerably. To this day Rob’s terror of being killed is still vivid to my wife.  She was sure the future father in law was going to come busting through the front doors of the precinct at any moment with guns blazing. After Rob calmed down we followed him to his apartment where he had been living with his fiancée. He quickly retrieved personal belongings then took off to find a new city in which to live.

Throughout our shift we had a series of other calls that were equally unsettling to my wife, but they are stories for other blog posts….

Approaching 10:30 PM we were on our way back to the precinct to finish for the night. Dispatch sounded a holdup alarm tone over the radio indicating an armed holdup had just occurred. A cash only gas station was closing for the night and the manager was taking the money to a night deposit drop when three armed men held him up. Unknown to the manager, one of the suspects was a former employee who knew the closing routine. The victim reported the holdup suspects had handguns.

As we rounded a corner near the gas station, we saw three men look at us, then run down the sidewalk throwing fists full of money into a 20-30 mph stiff east wind. The money was blowing all over the neighborhood. As we watched this strange way to celebrate New Year’s Eve, I quickly concluded these men were the holdup suspects.

I sped up and cut in front of the three robbers causing them to scatter into an apartment parking lot as they continued to throw money into the air. I radioed my location and the number of suspects, then jumped out of my patrol car and caught up to one of them knocking him to the ground. My wife was frightened for my safety, knowing I was outnumbered, that the suspects were armed, and that cover had not arrived.  Quickly handcuffing the first suspect, I did a cursory search of his person for weapons without finding any, and then stuffed him in the back seat of my cruiser.

I yelled at my wife to get out of the car. I did this because I was going to chase after another robber and  didn’t have time to search this guy completely. Had he had a gun he could have shot through the front seat, harming her. She didn’t understand what I was asking her to do so, I yelled again for her to get out of the patrol car and stand behind a nearby tree until cover (help from other police officers) arrived. As my wife stood in the dark windy night she watched the events unfold, still fearful for my safety.

Once she was out of harm’s way, I went after another robber and by now my siren and lights woke up the neighborhood dogs. The dog that barks the fastest, loudest and harshest is the one that is closest to the stranger. An officer can usually follow the intense barking right to a hiding suspect. It worked this night as I found another robber hiding behind a dumpster with a dog that was going nuts, just behind a fence about two feet away from him.

I handcuffed this suspect and searched him for weapons finding a large hunting knife in his boot. He still had several $20 dollar bills stashed in his shirt. This suspect would not cooperate by walking to my patrol car so I concluded he resisted arrest at this point to give his partners more time to escape. I had to carry him with one of my arms through one of his handcuffed arms, back to my car. By now, cover officers were arriving so I handed this suspect off to one of the cover officers to thoroughly search him and seat him in a separate patrol car. Another officer had removed my first detainee, searched him and searched the back seat of my car thoroughly for weapons. Not finding any, he placed this suspect in his car so my wife could get back into my vehicle.

A police dog unit had arrived and I knew the third suspect couldn’t be very far away. We started to search for him and almost as soon as we started the search was over. The dog found the third suspect under a van hiding up against the curb in the darkness. The suspect didn’t want the dog to come under the van to escort him out so he agreed to come out if we held the dog. As we searched this suspect we couldn’t find a weapon so we had the K-9 officer use the dog to search for a weapon and sure enough the dog found a large hunting knife by the curb under the van where the robber was hiding. The suspects in the robbery had used hunting knives, not handguns, for weapons to threaten the victim’s life if he did not cooperate and hand over the cash.

We attempted to gather up as much cash as we could but only recovered a small amount of what was stolen. I’m sure the next morning residents in this neighborhood thought the tooth fairy had a few too many libations and dropped her money sack in the heavy wind leaving them a New Year’s Day gift.

Over the years I would occasionally ask my wife if she would like to ride along with me and she would reply, “No thanks, I like to pretend I don’t know what you do for a living.”

That was okay because we believe the following teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
• By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families.
• Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.
• In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners.
• Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

From the Proclamation on the Family (September 1995)  To learn more about the Proclamation on the Family see mormon.org or lds.org

Mabel Takes a Bath

It was a sunny Friday afternoon (my Monday) and I was working 4 days a week, 10 hours a day, when I began patrol duty at 4 PM. If I was lucky I would return to the precinct by 2 AM, but many days it would be 3-5 AM.  Before my shift I had shined my boots and put on a freshly dry cleaned uniform with military pleats on the shirt and pants. No two days of work are ever the same and this would be a unique day.

I had worked in the Police Crime Prevention Unit for a couple of years and learned a lot about home and business security. One thing I learned was some doors are better secured than others when it comes to kicking them in to gain entry. When police need to enter a locked building, and there is not an immediate need to gain entry we will sometimes call a locksmith that has agreed to volunteer their services to pick a lock rather than kicking in the door.

This day as I left the precinct 911 dispatch sent me to check on the welfare of an 87 year old widow, Mabel (not her real name), that neighbors had not seen for several days. Often these calls result in the discovery of a natural death and a call to their mortuary if they have recently been under a doctor’s care and there is no evidence of foul play or suicide.

When I arrived at the residence I first noticed there were three daily newspapers on the porch and that the lights were on despite the sun being still quite high in the sky. I knocked on the front door several times and got no response. I then walked around back to knock and as I did so I could see the TV was on in the living room. When I got around to the back of the house there was a small dog that was very anxious to have me open the door so he could enter, but the door was locked and it had a very good deadbolt lock on it as well as the standard passage set.

Unfortunately many old people like to live in their home amid familiar surroundings when they get old, but sometimes die there because they have a medical event that disables them and they cannot summon help. I requested that dispatch contact the reporting neighbor so I could gather more background information to be sure Mabel was not out of town and if necessary call for a volunteer locksmith to gain entry without damaging the house.

The concerned neighbor told me Mabel was frail and probably should not be living alone but she didn’t want to live in an assisted care facility. We talked for about 20 minutes when dispatch informed me they could not locate a locksmith that would be willing to pick the lock late on a Friday afternoon. This meant I would have to call out the Fire Department to break the door open or I could do it myself. I was tired of waiting for the locksmith so I asked the neighbor if he would stand by as a witness while I entered the home and checked on Mabel. He was frightened and hesitant but agreed. Most folks don’t like to find a dead body.

Sometimes I don’t know my own strength or the door frame was structurally weak because when I kicked the door the entire door frame and door went crashing down the stairway of the split entry landing. The door did not break and the locks held the door to the frame. The neighbor looked at me like, WOW, that was some kick.

I yelled, “Mabel, are you home?”

It was then I heard a faint voice crying, “Help me, help me.”

I turned to ask the neighbor if he would follow me into the house only to see him running as fast as he could towards his home. That was the last I saw of the neighbor.

I climbed the stairs to the kitchen and called, “Mabel, where are you?”

Again I heard a weak voice say, “I’m in the bathroom.”

As I entered the bathroom there was poor Mabel in an old fashion claw foot bathtub lying on her back. She had been that way for three days.  On the first day, after a couple of hours, when the water got cold, she pulled the plug with her toe, then just laid there shivering and expecting to die.

Mabel was somewhat embarrassed but mostly grateful that help had arrived. She told me she had not fallen down but didn’t have the strength to pull herself out of the tub. I put a large bath towel over her and then picked her up and carried her to her bed.

She kept saying, “Thank you, thank you, I was sure I was going to die in that tub.”

Once she was in bed I covered her up and visited with her until the ambulance arrived. They bundled her up and took her to the hospital for observation. Mabel was very cold and dehydrated.

I once had a partner whose father was a mortician and she got me in the habit of reading the obituaries. For the next couple of weeks I watched for Mabel’s notice but nothing appeared so I concluded she had returned home for a few more baths before she finally checked out of mortality.

The Lord instructs us in James 1: 27 that, “Pure religion and undefiled before God (Christ) and the Father is this, To visit … the widows in their affliction,…” Neighbors that love their neighbor as themselves are following Christ’s teaching in John 13: 3 “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” Mabel’s neighbor loved her enough to check on her and saved her life.

We all need to be our brother’s keeper and show love and concern for others like we do for ourselves. To learn more about Heavenly Father’s Plan for us to care for each other see mormon.org or lds.org