Visa to the rescue!
My mom had been concerned for some time about her father driving. She had talked to her siblings and mother many times about the issue. All though they all knew Papa would be crushed when they took his license away, it had to happen. He could harm another person.
So they "talked to him and hid his keys." When at home, his keys were hidden and he was usually supervised. One Saturday, Mimi ran a "quick" errand. She returned home, pulled into the driveway, and opened the garage door to park. As the garage door rose, she was horrified to find that Papa's car was missing. Mimi searched the house but Papa and his keys where gone. Mimi called Susan and Deborah (my aunts who lived in the area) but waited to call my mother(who lives in Atlanta) until he had been gone a couple hours. Mimi, terrified, had placed a missing persons report, and was watching local news channels praying he did not cause an accident. "From Atlanta, 800 miles away, what could I do" my mom wondered. Bob (my daddy) decided to call his credit card companies and pleaded for some time with customer service to look at his account for the most recent activity. VISA relented and looked up his accounts. They found a hotel room charge from several hours previous at a Marriot some 100 miles from Blacksburg. My mother called the hotel, who confirmed that it was in fact Papa who had paid for the room. The hotel employees called Papa's room, but he didn't answer the phone. They sent someone up to the door but got no answer again. So, the hotel called the police. The police arrived and opened the room only to find it empty and showing almost no signs of activity. The police however did notice his car in the parking lot. They found him literally freezing to death in his car. When asked he was unable to tell them who he was, or how he got there. They brought him inside and given some food (he had diabetes) while Mark(my uncle his son-in-law) drove the 100+ miles to the hotel. He had driven 100 miles on the interstate in the mountains during a snow storm. His wallet was later found hidden in a pillow case at the hotel. After the event, his car was returned to its place in the garage without the battery. Mimi's car "disappeared" and was replaced with a shiny new Prius. Whenever Mimi drove anywhere, she kept the keys to the car hidden in her purse. Unable to figure out how to start the car, Papa was unable to drive the car anywhere. He often asked Mimi how she turned the car on, because he only saw her push a button twice to make the car "run" and even then there was no engine making noise. |