He couldn’t have been much more than 4 or 5 and he was sitting on a bench in the kids park as I wandered there with our elderly Border Terrier in the rare morning sunshine. The little lad was crying and sniffling so I went over to him and asked if he’d like to stroke Benji the Border.
He looked up and Benji sniffed him, as was his wont, while the lad attempted a watery smile.
“Where are your parents” I asked him. He gave me the makings of a small smile and wailed “I don’t know. Mum was here and now she isn’t”.
I looked around for a distraught parent but none was to be seen.
“Do you know where she’s gone” I asked him. “No” he spluttered. “She was here and now she’s gone”
“We’ll” I said, “How about we look for her with Benji? We might find her somewhere nearby”.
“OK” he said, “But we can’t go far unless she comes back and I’m not here “.
“Fair enough” I said, “What does she look like and can you remember what she was wearing?”
“She’s got a blue coat on” he said, “But I don’t l now what else”.
“Right” said I,”Come on, let’s get looking”.
I took his hand and we set off around the small park, eyes peeled for a blue coat on a lady. None was to be seen.
I asked any of the other people in the park if they had seen a woman in a blue coat on as the little lad seemed to have lost his mother. None had seen such a person.
We wandered close to the park verge and I saw something blue out of the corner of my eye. We went across and saw a woman collapsed in the undergrowth.
“Do you recognise this lady” and “By the way, what is your name? I’m Ken” I told him.
He said “I’m Peter and the lady looks like my mum”.
I bent down to see what has happened to Peter’s mum and she seemed to have slipped on some smooth wet grass and fallen. I took her hand and felt her pulse and it was throbbing away.
“How are you” I asked her, “I have your son Peter with me and how can we help you”
She didn’t answer and just lay there with closed eyes. I figured she must have knocked herself out in her fall somehow so I grabbed my phone and called 999 for an ambulance.
Explaining the situation to the operator she said she would call for an ambulance and I told her where we were to be found. She explained it might be some time.
I then called my wife and asked her to join us with some coffee perhaps and a warm blanket.
I explained to Peter what was happening and that help would be arriving for his mum. Benji made much of him and we settled down to wait.
My wife arrived first with blanket and coffee which we ended up drinking ourselves as Peter’s mum hadn’t woken up.
Then came the ambulance and paramedics who took charge of both Mum and Peter and carried them away to the nearby hospital.
I never did find out the lady’s name.
Foootsoldier Says… 