One of my favorite posts from the past

I ran into a former coworker yesterday and she said she thought of me the other day when she saw someone helping an elderly person across the street.  She was referencing this story that I shared on my blog over 2 years ago.  What I experienced  that day changed my life forever.  I learned that when you help someone in need you actually get more out of it than the person that needed the help.  It's amazing people aren't helping others more often!  Some of you that have been reading my blog awhile may remember this story...

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I have a thing for white aprons as you can see. I don't use them I just like to display them. The middle one is one of my favorites because it's linen. I just love linen and lace!

The white aprons were my planned post for today but then something happened yesterday that I have to share...

I was driving back to work from an appointment I had yesterday morning. I was irritated because the appointment had started late and I was very late getting back to work. For some reason I was not paying attention and I turned onto the wrong freeway! Luckily further up the freeway there is a road that connects to the freeway I should have been on so I took that exit. I was going with the flow of traffic when I realized even though we had a green light that cars were stopping. I slowed down and then I saw a tiny, very hunched-back old lady crossing the street against the traffic! A car came flying up in the lane next to me and I thought for sure I was going to witness this lady get hit by a car. I let out a huge gasp, my heart dropped into my stomach and every muscle in my body tightened up! Luckily the driver saw her in time and was able to stop. I could tell the woman did not even know what was going on around her!

Once she finally reached the other side of the street, our light turned red so we were all sitting there in our cars looking at this woman. I was waiting for someone to help her as I'm sure everyone else was. I realized that I needed to step up and offer to help. The light was still red so I got out of my car and yelled over to her to see if she needed help. As she looked up, I could see tears in her eyes and she shook her head yes.

When the light turned green, I turned into the parking lot. She was so frail. Her back was so bad, her body was bent in half with her face pointing to the ground. She was wearing pajama bottoms and she had a push cart with a few belongings; just some candy, a newspaper, adult diapers and a pillow. She told me she was from Modesto, which is over an hour away and that she had come here for her mother's funeral. She said some mean woman had stolen her money that she was going to use to take the train back home to Modesto. She said she only needed $15 more. I started to think maybe it was a scam but then I remembered how she was almost hit by a car. I told her to get in my car and I would get her help.

My cell phone is broken so I drove her back to my work and told my coworkers what happened. They gave me some money for her, about $14. She was in a lot of pain and told me she had a prescription at a pharmacy that she needed to get for back pain. I took her to a pharmacy by my work and got the prescription transferred there. I bought her the medicine, some adult diapers because she only had two left, wipes & lunch. I wouldn't have been able to spend this much money on her this time of the month because it's rent time but I had just received an unexpected check for $100 and I really feel like it was meant for her.

She told me she had dementia. She did not want me to call the police so I told her I wouldn't. I kept asking her if she had any friends or relatives. Her husband was dead and she didn't have any children. She had friends in Modesto but not in the San Jose area. Then she told me she had a friend but that it was too far away and she didn't want me to have to drive her that far. When she told me where her friend lived I couldn't believe it...it was just down the street from where we were. I had driven her about 15 - 20 minutes away from where I first found her and now we were near someone she knew.

When I took her to her friend's house no one was home but they had a bench in front of their house and she told me she would sit there, eat the lunch I bought for her and wait for her friend to come home. She assured me that her friend never leaves for long and that she would be home soon. I gave her $20 and left her my business card, my home phone number and told her she could call me if she ever needed help. She gave my a hug goodbye and I left with tears in my eyes! I felt horrible leaving her there but I had to get back to work and she assured me that it was okay.

I went back to work and called the police department of the city I found her in to see if anyone had reported her missing. The police dispatcher said no but didn't bother to take my name or number which I thought was odd. I couldn't stop thinking about her.

When I got home from work last night I called the police department again. The woman questioned me about not calling them when I found her and I felt horrible...maybe I didn't do the right thing? She took my name and number and said she was going to research it more and they would call me if they found out any more information.

I haven't heard from them yet. I'm feeling sick because I really think I should have called the police to help and not just left her at that home. I didn't listen to my intuition ~ I just did what she asked.

Her name is Helen Ruiz and she's from Modesto, California. She told me she was 69 years old but she looked so much older. If by chance someone reads this and knows her I would love to know that she's okay. I really believe that somehow I was guided down the wrong freeway and given that money so I could help her. Isn't that amazing how that happens! I sure hope she's okay. I know I will never forget that day and how good it feels to help someone in need!

Update: I called the Modesto Police Department today and left a message with an investigator there. I haven't heard back from her yet. Another update: I heard back from the investigator and she did a local search and then also did a national search using different ages and there was no one reported missing with her name.

I also got an nice email from someone who reads my blog and lives in Modesto. She is going watch the news and check the newspapers there to see if there are reports of someone missing.

Also, I thought about going back to the house but my friends say I shouldn't. She has my phone number so hopefully she will contact me or if she needs help someone will find my numbers in her purse and contact me.

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I never did hear anything more from her but just knowing I got her out of a busy intersection and bought her food and other things and took her to a friend's home made me feel good.  I'm so glad I didn't do what every other person did at that intersection....NOTHING...which is what I would have done in the past. I don't know what made me step up and do something that day but I'm sure glad I did!

Spring

Spring and Summer, originally uploaded by Romantic Home.

I've been so busy lately and thought about taking a blog break for a few days but rather than do that I'm going to just repost some things I've shared before. This is a mosaic I made from flickr favorites 3 years ago. Since it's Easter week I thought it would be great to share it again.

Work in Progress...

I've been wanting to paint my bedroom for years. That blue paint I had in there previously photographed a lot better than it actually looked in person. I never did like it and I'm not sure what took me so long but it's finally gone! And I'm so happy!

It looks rather boring in here now because I'm not finished. I'll be adding light blue drapes on the window and I'm going to cover the mirrored closet doors with matching drapes. It will be a pain to open the drapes everytime I want to get in the closet but worth it I think. I love mirrors...but not big massive mirrored closet doors with shiny silver metal all around them!
I moved this small table from next to my bed to this empty space to the left of the closet and then I brought up a mirror I had at the bottom of my staircase to hang over it. I've since brought up this small chair to put in front of the table so I can use it as a vanity. That chair draped in a throw to the right of the closet is the Bergere chair that I got for $35 on craigslist. That is a project I need to get started on! It will look great there when I'm finished!
The color on the walls is Behr Paint~Sandstone Cove. In person there is more of a difference between the furniture and the wall color. I still need to paint the trim white and I think that will make the color pop more.


The toile pillows will not stay because I have those on my couch downstairs. I will be adding more blue accent color here and there. I think I'm going to go with more of a Robin's Egg Blue in here but I'm still not sure.
My dad is making me a bed crown which will go at the top of the wall close to the ceiling and I'll drape fabric from it to the outside of my headboard for a more romantic look and to fill up space on that massive wall.

I wasn't planning on going with a beach theme but as I was pulling things from other areas in my apartment it just worked out that way.

It works for now...

I know it looks a little "plain vanilla" right now but I think when it's finished it will have a very elegant feel.

Did you notice that the Duvet looks different in the different photos? It's a Simply Shabby Chic Duvet from Target (although I bought mine cheaper on eBay). I wasn't sure if I like the fufu-iness of it so I turned it over. Which do you like better?

Blogger Problems today

There is problems uploading photos on Blogger today. I painted my bedroom this weekend and wanted to show you but it will have to wait until I can upload the photos!

Show and Tell

Welcome to Show and Tell Friday! This week I'm sharing my old pitcher I bought on eBay about this time last year. Sorry...I'm actually using those old photos from last year too because I didn't get a chance to take new ones.

I fell in love with this the minute I saw it and the timing was perfect because I had just gotten a tax refund. Unfortunately this year there isn't any tax refund to spend on something fun. I owe the IRS but luckily I can pay them with the refund I'm getting from the state.

If you are joining in on Show and Tell Friday, please remember that your Show and Tell needs to be something from your home or garden. Please read the Show and Tell Guidelines for step-by-step instructions on how to participate.If you would like to join in, please enter your name and leave your exact Show and Tell blog post link, not just your blog link and as a common courtesy link back to my blog. If your link has been removed from MckLinky, please re-read over the guidelines before re-posting, or e-mail me with any questions.Thank you! I look forward to seeing everyone's posts...it may take me awhile to get around to visit everyone since I work full time but I'll do my best to get to your blog as soon as I can!

Sittin' on the dock of the bay...

Remember that song by Otis Redding "The Dock of the Bay"? Well, I was sittin' on a deck above a dock of the San Francisco Bay last weekend with my friends Kim and Natasha and that song came to mind. To me, there is nothing better than sitting at an outside restaurant and it's even better if the restaurant happens to be on the water...and it's even better when you're with friends that make you laugh so hard you cry which is what happens every time I'm out with these two! The three of us go out for lunch and shopping once a month (last month it was Carmel) and this month we chose to go to Sausalito which is just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. Since we were in that area I told my friends that we had to have lunch in Tiburon, which is a few minutes away. There is a great place to eat there and that photo above was taken from our table at Sams...

My old high school friend Donnae introduced me to this place in the late 80s. It's the best place in the world to sit back and relax with some good food but it's also a great place to people-watch. Yep, we did a lot of people watching. I took this photo below of my friends as a cover because we really wanted a photo of the guy in the black jacket and black visor because he looked like a younger version of George Clooney! Can you see him? That was some pretty tricky picture taking! lol I'm going to be so embarrassed if someone that reads my blog knows him!

The food was great! Kim and I had a Caesar Salad with Grilled Salmon....

Natasha had a Garden Salad with Grilled Chicken...

When we weren't looking at the George Clooney look-alike we had a beautiful view of the water, boats and homes on the hill. Smile Natasha!

After lunch we walked around a bit...

and then we hopped in the car and took the short drive over to Sausalito. I snapped this photo from the back seat....

Okay, here we are in Sausalito....

There is a great view over the bay to the San Francisco skyline....

Smile Natasha....

Then we strolled though the town and enjoyed site seeing and shopping...

This shop below (Georgiou) had beautiful clothes and the prices were pretty good too...

I always notice the flowers....

Yummy San Francisco sour dough bread...

This guy is balancing rocks. It was amazing to watch....

They aren't glued, just balanced like this...

You can see him doing this on YouTube, click here. It's unbelievable!

It was a great day but it was time to go home, which is only about 1 hour away, but first we have to go over this....

The Golden Gate Bridge. I used to call it the Golden Great Bridge when I was little. I still think that sounds better...

View from the sunroof...

When you get off the bridge you see this beautiful building, The Palace of Fine Arts...

While we were driving through San Francisco we saw a bunch of camera crews. They are filming the new show Parenthood in the city. I LOVE that show! We didn't see any of the stars though, just the crews taking down the equipment.

We had such a great day! The plan is to go to Napa next month so I'll take you along to the wine country with us! Even more exciting, we are planning a weekend trip to Las Vegas in September for my 50th birthday!!!