Bee-draggled

Friday the 13th - Unlucky for some.

It was certainly a testing day for a friend whose husband suffers from Parkinson's Disease and dementia.

I got a phone call at 10.30 a.m. to say she had stopped at the park on the way to his day centre to walk her dogs. It was raining, she told him to stay in the car.
She was only yards away but didn't notice him leave the car and wander off - with the keys.
He completely disappeared, she asked numerous people to look out for him, then in desperation, borrowed someone's phone and called me.

By the time I got there he'd been missing for 40 minutes.
I called the police, then I called my friend's daughter as her number is in her dad's wallet.

By total coincidence a neighbour of the daughter had seen a man behaving in an odd manner and realising who it was, had stopped and got him into his car and taken him to his place of work - a garage.

This good Samaritan phoned my friend, but of course there was no reply as her phone was locked in her car, he phoned the daughter's work number and explained what had happened.
She gave him my mobile number and I got a call to say he had been found.

By this time the police had turned up and had several vehicles on the look out for him. They sent a car off to collect him.

We waited for ages.

Eventually the police man waiting with us got a call to say my friend's husband had had a panic attack and got out of the police car and refused to get back in.

We were escorted by the police to where he was.
By now, very confused, he said "That was no copper, he had no numbers, I wasn't going anywhere with him."
He then looked at me and said "I hope you're the real Amanda I know and not a substitute" Eventually he agreed to get into my car and we were able to return to my friend's car and get them both home.

A restorative cup of tea and several chocolate digestive biscuits later, he had calmed down. I hugged them both and felt awful having to leave.

On the way home I saw a field margin of sunflowers and thought a bright sunshine yellow photo would help to lift my spirits. It was by now raining and this poor bee-draggled bumble bee was trying to shelter.

This evening I am mostly counting my blessings.
Have a super weekend x x