Austerity vultures swoop on Pat Morris in Swansea

[TonyGosling]

A few months ago, just before Christmas I happened to be seated in a café near an elderly lady whom I and many locals knew at least visually.
I asked how she was and she said I’m fine and spoke eloquently. I said I notice you always have a little trolley with you. She told me she was in her eighties and had been a ballet dancer but now needed the trolley to keep her balance. She seemed comfortable talking with me and we exchanged names. I asked if she had family near. She said she lived alone and her only living relative was her 90 year old brother who lived in California. She then asked me if the Christmas card she had written him looked ok as she wanted to send it to him. The card was for child’s birthday. I felt a little concerned and asked if she had a phone in case of an emergency? She showed me an unopened box which contained a mobile phone. I asked if she used it. She said “I can’t see what it is –you see I’m blind. Someone had suggested I get a mobile phone so I went to Tesco’s – but I don’t know what it is.”

I had suddenly realised that she hadn’t been looking directly at me all the time we spoke. I was a little overwhelmed. In the box was a cable with a plug. I passed it to her placing it in her hand. She felt it and asked if it had square or round pins? She then said “well I don’t have any electricity.” She told me she owned her own house but it was in a poor state of repair and had to live and sleep in one room because the roof leaked in the other parts. She told me she had no heating or light. But she said it didn’t matter because she couldn’t see anyway and would go to bed to keep herself warm and dream about the good times.

I asked her if she knew of social services. She said “What’s that?.” I said look you don’t know me but I come to this café a lot and the owner Julie know us both. I asked “Can I help by calling Social Services for you?” She said “I would be most grateful.” I asked her for her details in front of Julie. She rattled out her full name address and postal code. We agreed to meet the next day Friday here in the Squirrel Café at 5 pm.

Next day I phoned all the services and asked for their help. I was concerned because we were having a cold spell.

She didn’t meet me as arranged – I wondered whether the social services had found her and placed her somewhere safe.

Sunday evening I was feeling uneasy and decided I had to call the 101 police number just in case. I explained my concerns and asked if they could kindly visit her and call me back to reassure me. I didn’t hear from them.

Monday first thing I called the Police. A female officer answered. No sooner I started to explain she stopped me and said “Sir we are so sorry we misplaced your number. You probably saved the ladies life.” The officer was a little overcome as she explained her team kicked in Pat’s front door – they found her dying from exposure. She was taken to Hospital and Sir – thank God she is recovering.”

I called the Red Cross and social services who told me they will take over and thanked me. I asked them to keep me informed and asked if they could give me her ward number. They said they couldn’t do that. I felt they were being a little too correct.

I called the hospital and would check on her every few days. She was there for some weeks. I then took it on myself to ask a nurse to let me speak with her. We spoke for quite some time and she told me they were going to find a shelter home. I said I’ll give you my number just in case you need me for anything – she called the nurse – who wrote it down and gave it to her.

Yesterday I met with an hotelier friend who knew her and he told me very coincidentally she had come to see him the previous night and asked if she could have a room for the night. The next day she said she needed to go to the bank to get some money to pay him. She had money from a family trust. Then the police arrived at my friend’s hotel looking for her. They found her at the bank and brought her to collect her trolley from the hotel and take her back to her shelter home. She was distressed and told my friend she was so sorry – she was embarrassed because her bank account was closed. No one had told her anything. Pat had a grade 2 Georgian house. Yes it was in need or restoration for which I believe there are grants available.

Shortly after Pat was sent to the shelter I got a lovely email from the Red Cross lady who had been wonderful and helped where she could. She wrote to tell me they had to let her go due to cut backs.