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Thanks to a mystery Roche Point Good Samaritan

Young woman vanishes after finding elderly man lying in road

A North Vancouver woman says she owes a stranger a heartfelt thank-you after the unidentified Good Samaritan helped save her husband's life.

Shirley Hollett was at her home on Roche Point Drive at about 5 a.m. Nov. 10 when she was woken by a knock at the door.

A woman in her 20s, whom Hollett didn't recognize, was standing on the doorstep.

The stranger said she had found Hollett's husband, Ralph, lying next to the road about a block away.

Grabbing Ralph's walker, Hollett followed the woman to the spot, where she found Ralph, who is 89 and suffers from Alzheimer's, collapsed on the ground, unable to get up.

He had apparently wandered there, barefoot, disoriented, and without any walking aid, and had told the stranger where he lived when she had found him.

"He was soaking to the skin," said Hollett. "It was so cold."

The two women were unable to get him to his feet, so they called 9-1-1. An ambulance was there in minutes. The paramedics checked Ralph out and then helped him back to the house where he changed into dry clothes.

He has since recovered.

"I thought afterwards: 'If that girl hadn't come along, he could have lain there for two hours,'" said Hollett. "He's 89; his chances of survival would have been pretty long."

That stretch of Roche Point is private, she added, meaning it was unlikely anyone else would have come across the distressed man in time.

Hollett said she regrets that she didn't get a chance to express her gratitude properly at the time.

"The girl, of course, disappeared; I have no idea where she lived," she said. "She was tall, and she was in her late 20s maybe."

Hollett says she hopes she can get a message to the woman through the newspaper:

"I just wanted to say thank you," she said. "Really, thank you."

jweldon@nsnews.com