A senior in San Diego was so grateful for the help of local firefighters, she wanted to thank them in person with a big bag of sweets, reports NBC San Diego’s recent article entitled “Stranded La Jolla Woman, 87, Brings Treats to Firefighters Who Gave Her a Lift.”
“It was a long time I was waiting for that cab. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be there all night,” La Jolla resident Sandy Lightman recalled telling San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Captain Jordan Buller on May 10, the night of her “rescue.”
The article said that Mrs. Lightman may have needed a fire engine to haul the three dozen cookies and four cheesecakes to Captain Buller and the Station 35 crew.
The 87-year-old explained that she’d just ended one of her daily trips to a nursing facility, where she cares for her husband who’s living with dementia.
She started requesting a cab around 8:20 p.m., but it didn’t show. So, she kept calling.
Hours later at 11 p.m., while on another call to the facility, Captain Buller and his crew recognized Lightman’s distress.
“She was frantically trying to call family and call a cab and we could tell she was distraught,” he said.
“I can’t walk that well, and I was only two-and-a-half blocks from where I live but I was afraid to go on the street by myself. I didn’t know if I’d make it home,” she said.
Since the cab wasn’t coming, the San Diego fire firefighters loaded Lightman into the cab of their engine.
They strapped her into the jump seat—and even gave her headphones to wear for the trip.
“It felt so secure, it made me feel so good because they were helping me and I knew I was safe, because I was afraid,” said Mrs. Lightman.
Back home safely, the grateful woman says she’s thankful to the local news outlet that was able to help track down the station who treated her with such kindness, so she could spoil them with some sweet treats.
Lightman and her husband will celebrate 40 years of marriage next week.
Reference: NBC San Diego (May 24, 2022) “Stranded La Jolla Woman, 87, Brings Treats to Firefighters Who Gave Her a Lift”
