Today my Dad was due to go to a meeting and lunch in a town about 8 miles away. He wasn't keen to go but my Mum persuaded him to go as he would be with friends and she thought it would do him good to get out.
She dropped him off at 10.30ish and arranged with one of the men there that they could bring him home. At aboout 12 she received a phone call from the hall where the lunch was being held, asking if he had arrived home!
One of the men reported that he had seen my Dad a few yards up the road from the hall at about 10.45 and he hadn't been seen since.
I sped up to the hall to find a Police Community officer co-ordinating the search. The police then arrived and I filled in a missing persons report. The police notified all units, hospitals, bus companies, taxis and so on. There was a report that he had been seen in the town, but had not been seen for some time.
There was nothing more to be done and I drove back to my Mum and Dad's along the route that he might have walked but no sign.
He finally turned up at home some 4 hours after he was last seen. He was very distressed and we have little idea how he got home other than that he had a bus ticket in his pocket, but we think he might have been on various buses and/or trains.
All he was able to tell us was that someone who should have been at the meeting wasn't there and he had gone outside to look for my Mum, thinking she was still outside. There were over 100 people at this lunch and although he knows them all (or they know him) it was obviously too much for him and he had panicked. The people there know his condition but clearly not how he needs to be looked after, and didn't react when they saw him leave. Probably we are at fault for trying to make things as normal as possible and not always treating him with kid gloves.
One thing I did learn was that he should always have ID on him. I had started to do a card for him with the web site U-Card-it (I think that's what it's called) but had got stuck. Definitely first thing on the list.
The Police were fantastic, making it a high priority because of his age and condition.
Anyway, he's home now although not best pleased with my mum, watching the rugby from last night on the TV. Tomorrow he will have forgotten all about it.
We had just a small taste today. I can only just begin to imagine what John Allen's familyare going through.
She dropped him off at 10.30ish and arranged with one of the men there that they could bring him home. At aboout 12 she received a phone call from the hall where the lunch was being held, asking if he had arrived home!
One of the men reported that he had seen my Dad a few yards up the road from the hall at about 10.45 and he hadn't been seen since.
I sped up to the hall to find a Police Community officer co-ordinating the search. The police then arrived and I filled in a missing persons report. The police notified all units, hospitals, bus companies, taxis and so on. There was a report that he had been seen in the town, but had not been seen for some time.
There was nothing more to be done and I drove back to my Mum and Dad's along the route that he might have walked but no sign.
He finally turned up at home some 4 hours after he was last seen. He was very distressed and we have little idea how he got home other than that he had a bus ticket in his pocket, but we think he might have been on various buses and/or trains.
All he was able to tell us was that someone who should have been at the meeting wasn't there and he had gone outside to look for my Mum, thinking she was still outside. There were over 100 people at this lunch and although he knows them all (or they know him) it was obviously too much for him and he had panicked. The people there know his condition but clearly not how he needs to be looked after, and didn't react when they saw him leave. Probably we are at fault for trying to make things as normal as possible and not always treating him with kid gloves.
One thing I did learn was that he should always have ID on him. I had started to do a card for him with the web site U-Card-it (I think that's what it's called) but had got stuck. Definitely first thing on the list.
The Police were fantastic, making it a high priority because of his age and condition.
Anyway, he's home now although not best pleased with my mum, watching the rugby from last night on the TV. Tomorrow he will have forgotten all about it.
We had just a small taste today. I can only just begin to imagine what John Allen's familyare going through.
