Alzheimer's disease is one of the most heartbreaking health afflictions a person and their family can go through. The disease leads to rapid mental deterioration of their mental state, families and friends literally watch their loved ones fade away before their eyes. Recently, a man shared a heartwarming story of how a stranger helped his mother-in-law with Alzheimer's disease.
An X user named Dave in a long post shared, "My wife's mom has Alzheimer's disease. Earlier tonight, we left her parents alone at their Airbnb while we took the kids to urgent care for ear infections. Her dad fell asleep on the couch. Her mom wandered out the door..."
He added, "We rushed back as soon as we heard she was missing. It was dark and raining steadily. Her coat was still on the rack. Her wallet still on the table. I ran up and down the block asking neighbors if they had seen her. We got in our cars and combed the entire neighborhood. No luck."
"I decided to check out a shopping center a few blocks away hoping that she had been drawn to the bright lights. I drove by the front entrance of the grocery store and, amazingly, saw her through the window sitting at a table in the coffee shop with a woman I didn't know," he further wrote.
"I parked and ran into the store. I found them sipping tea and talking cheerfully. I told the woman who I was and thanked her for watching after my mother-in-law. The woman and her partner had noticed her in the parking lot looking confused, so they had guided her into the store," the post read.
Dave mentioned that the stranger helped his mom-in-law shop for bread and cookies and then paid for them since she had no money or credit cards. "They sat with her while the store employees scrambled to locate her caretaker. They were exactly the people you would hope to find in this situation," the tweet read.
Dave further wrote, "I thanked them for treating her with such warmth and dignity. They wouldn't let me pay them back for the groceries or tea. We don't know their names or anything else about them, but we will always be thankful that they identified our problem and stopped to help."
He concluded his post by saying, "There are good people left in the world, and our family is eternally grateful."
See the post here:
Since being shared, the post has amassed 6.8 million views and 61,000 likes and 6,400 retweets.
The heartwarming post is winning hearts on the internet. A user commented, "I'm so glad she ran into such kind people. Alzheimer's is such a cruel disease. I'm not sure if this would help exactly, and it does sound silly but is there a way to have her wear an apple AirTag maybe? Like as a necklace that she rarely takes off? Modern problems/solutions?"
Another user commented, "My wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's last month. This had me weeping."
"Read the entire story. I can imagine how frantic you were. So glad you found her safe with kind people. My mom had dementia and I was her sole caregiver. While she didn't wander per se, she had trouble sitting still and did hallucinate. I truly understand what you and your wife are going through. Sending you heartfelt good wishes," the third user wrote.
"Wow that is a scary situation that ended extremely fortunately," the fourth user wrote.
"My heart actually started racing reading this. My dad died with dementia nine years ago. My mom fell asleep and he escaped. He was fixated on checking on the car and meeting a man. He fell on ice, broke his hip and died several hours later. God bless you all," the fifth user commented.
