An Arizona family is thankful for the kindness of a stranger who helped out a 93-year-old woman after she’d fallen in her home.
Lyda Johnson, 93, lives at an assisted living facility in Chandler, Arizona. She had fallen down and couldn’t get up, but she did have her cellphone in hand.
Johnson couldn’t find the number to call facility staff, who would have immediately come to help her, but she did have her daughter’s phone number and called that number instead.
The only problem was that Cynthia Smitherman, Johnson’s daughter, had lost her cell phone.
In the hustle and bustle of the day, Smitherman inadvertently left her phone on top of her car and drove away.
Johnson might have spent the entire day trying to reach her daughter, had it not been for the kindness of a complete stranger who noticed a cell phone abandoned in the middle of the road.
Ken Blewster was driving with his 14-year-old daughter, Kelsey, when he noticed the phone.
“I heard a voice in my head that said, ‘Turn around and go get it,’” Blewster told KPNX-TV.
“Picked it up, and as soon as I turned down Gilbert Road, it rang. It said ‘Mom’ on the caller ID,” Blewster said.
So he answered the phone, hoping it would lead him to the owner. Instead, it was the worried voice of Johnson, who explained that she’d fallen down and needed someone to help her.
Blewster was going to dial 911, but Johnson explained she was in an assisted living facility, and help was just a phone call away.
Blewster stayed on the phone with Johnson, reassuring her that he and his daughter would help. Kelsey did a quick online search and was able to find the phone number for Johnson’s home.
Blewster and Kelsey soon had a nurse on the phone who quickly sent someone to help Johnson back up.
When Smitherman found out everything that had transpired, she went from feeling shocked and concerned to feeling relieved and grateful.
“It could have been bad, very bad, and she could have been there for a long period of time,” Smitherman said.
She was blown away that a total stranger would take the time to help her family in such a kind way.
“He’s an angel. He’s an earthbound angel, and that just doesn’t happen today,” Smitherman said.
Kim Davis began writing for The Western Journal in 2015. Her primary topics cover family, faith, and women. She has experience as a copy editor for the online publication Thoughtful Women. Kim worked as an arts administrator for The Phoenix Symphony, writing music education curriculum and leading community engagement programs throughout the region. She holds a degree in music education from Grand Canyon University with a minor in eating tacos.