Lost seniors wind up in Amherstburg

Police find SUV with confused elderly couple who thought drive was close to Toronto home

An elderly couple on a Saturday afternoon drive from their Etobicoke home to a friend’s place in the same area in Toronto’s west side somehow lost their way and ended up being pulled over by police hours later in the middle of the night in Amherstburg.

A Hyundai Tucson driving suspiciously slow on Sandwich Street South at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday drew the attention of Windsor police officers with the Amherstburg detachment. The occupants had a hard time answering the patrol officers’ basic questions, like what they were doing crawling along the road in the middle of the night, or where they were going or even where they were from.

According to police, the couple believed they were still near their home, which is about 400 kilometres away.

Concerned for the well-being of the 88-year-old driver and his 85-year-old wife, officers invited them back to the station and promised to notify relatives.

However, they were initially unable to provide any contact information. Supplied muffins and coffee by the friendly officers, who also had the seniors checked out by paramedics, the driver then remembered the phone number of his eldest son.

“We were going crazy not knowing where they were,” Maria Emanuel-foster, the couple’s daughter, told the Star.

She said the phone number her parents recalled was that of their eldest son, who had died in August after a short battle with cancer. It was that man’s widow who picked up the phone, and it was that deceased man’s son and the elderly couple’s other son who drove from Toronto to retrieve the two seniors and their SUV.

“It’s like a miracle they’re OK,” said Emanuel-foster. “Whether you’re a believer or you are not, it’s an amazing story.”

Emanuel-foster said the family felt fortunate and was so grateful it was the police who found her parents. She cried while describing the kindness displayed by the officers.

She said her mother suffers from dementia and her father suffers occasional bouts of short-term memory loss.

She told the Star her parents returned home “a little bit disoriented, but safe.”

That Saturday afternoon, they had driven to a friend’s nearby home and, discovering the friend was not there, “Dad said, ‘I thought we’d go for a drive, I guess.’ ”

Emanuel-foster said her father drives regularly, either to the grocery store, church, family or to friends, but always within a short distance from their home and in the same neighbourhood.

As for her dad’s memory, “it’s not that bad, but it’s bad — more often than not, he’ll go somewhere and then he can’t remember why he went there.”

As for the Windsor police officers who took good care of her parents, Emanuel-foster said: “They were so kind — there are so many good people in this world.”

The police also took away her father’s driver’s licence, something for which she said the family is also grateful.

Asked by the Star to comment on the matter, Windsor Police Service spokeswoman Const. Talya Natyshak sent out a news release on Tuesday: “There comes a time in many seniors’ lives when no longer being able to safely drive becomes a reality. Having conversations with elderly family members about no longer driving can understandably be difficult for all parties involved.”

But Natyshak said such conversations are sometimes necessary. For those seeking answers on when and how someone you know should have their driver’s licence reviewed or revoked for medical reasons, she said the Ontario Ministry of Transportation has information online via mto.gov.on.ca.

“As a community, we have a responsibility to ensure the safety of all persons on the roadway,” said Natyshak.

Windsor police recommend that elderly people have emergency contact information on them at all times, if possible, and to keep that in a place that can be located by emergency services personnel, including on an alert bracelet, in a cellphone marked as an emergency contact or in a wallet.

Emanuel-foster said her father was a truck driver for the municipality of Etobicoke before he and his wife started a successful local clothing store they ran for more than 40 years until their retirement.

She describes her father as a patient, calm and “very proud” man who was probably most anxious when the police finally reached a family member, worrying they were “probably still sleeping.”

Emanuel-foster said her parents had never been to the Windsor and Amherstburg area before.