A Long Day of Searching

I was at work yesterday morning, listening to the police scanner when I heard that a neighbor and good friend was missing. According to the police report, she had last been seen Thursday afternoon in Wichita at her sister's house. Apparently, on Thursday, she tried to find a church in Wichita, got confused, ended up in a small town about 30 NE of Wichita before finally getting back to her sister's house. Her sister didn't want her to go home, but Esther is stubborn and left anyway. She's 79 years old, and usually very spry and active, cleans our church each week and takes care of her own lawn and garden. Anyway, I left work early to help look for her. Our Police Chief advised me that she apparently had been home Friday morning, as her morning paper was in the house but unread, although nobody had seen her. She had a hair appt in Wichita at 9am Friday that she never got to. After I had started searching some on the way back to Mt. Hope, the chief called again and said that the KHP had stopped her on a traffic violation at 8:30 that morning in Wichita, and she had told them she was on her way home from Texas and appeared to be coherent (they didn't realize she was missing at the time). The trooper followed her to the highway turn off that leads out west to Mt. Hope and said she had headed that way. That was the last time she was seen.

After I picked up Sunshine, I got in touch with the police again and we formulated a plan and he told me what areas had already been searched. The last time she was seen she was 20 minutes from Mt. Hope, and now it had been 3 hours. Sunshine and I searched a large area to the north of the highway between Mt. Hope and Wichita with no luck. We put nearly 300 miles on the Jeep, driving every road in that area. We finally gave up looking around 5:30pm. With a 9 hour time span, she could be almost anywhere.

Finally around 9:30 last night, an officer called me and let me know she had been found safe and somewhat sound in Wellington, KS, about 60-75 miles SE of Mt. Hope. Thank God for that!! I want to know where she had been between about 3:30pm Thursday and 8:30am Saturday when the KHP stopped her, and then where had she gone after that to end up 75 miles the opposite direction from where he last saw her on the highway.....we may never know. Sunshine and I were worried that in her confused state she may enter a 4-lane the wrong way and cause an accident or something like that. I'm just so glad she's home......sorry to bore you, I just had to talk about it.
 

I bet you're looking forward to a new week, the last one was an eventful one to say the least :shock:
 
You can say that again.....seems like for me when it rains it pours.

Update: Esther is in the hospital now, undergoing tests. She is not normally confused like that, in fact, is usually very sharp. I don't know if mayber her meds have changed or if she forgot to take them or if she had a stroke or what is going on....sure was scary, though. The family is already talking about putting her in an assisted living center here in town. That would be a shame, but on the other hand, if her condition doesn't improve, she needs to be there for sure.
 
TwistedCopper said:
I bet you're looking forward to a new week, the last one was an eventful one to say the least :shock:

Sparky Watts said:
You can say that again

I bet you're looking forward to a new week, the last one was an eventful one to say the least :shock:
 
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