Her compassionate concern was seen as meddling

For many of us, Jan. 20 was a day off from school or from work to celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday. The day was warm, sunny and bright.

My son and I went to a local drugstore to run some errands.

What we confronted changed how we spent the rest of the day, and perhaps impacted my 9-year-old son for the rest of his life.

In the parking lot, I glanced over to the car parked next to us and noticed that an elderly woman was sitting in the passenger seat of her car. An ordinary scene, perhaps, but something about this "picture" was different.

When I approached the car, I noticed that the sun was beaming right in her car window and that the woman’s cheeks were beet red; also, she wasn’t moving. I went over to the car and tried to open the door.

Fortunately, it was unlocked. The woman was unresponsive and disoriented, but fortunately not dead!

I told my son to grab the cell phone and stay with the woman, while I ran into the store to get the manager. As the manager and I were about to contact the authorities, a woman who seemingly knew the elderly passenger walked over to the car and proceeded to tell me that my concern for the car’s passenger was "none of my business."

I admonished her for having left the elderly woman alone in a car with no ventilation. The woman said that she was away from the car for "only a few minutes." The woman did not apologize, was not remorseful, and in fact did not even put her head in the car to see if the elderly woman was indeed okay.

Instead, she managed to say some other choice words to me in front of my son.

Subsequently, the elderly woman’s husband walked up to the car. After I told him how shameful he was for leaving his wife in clearly an unsafe situation, he pointed out that "there was a window opened and that she could open the door if she wanted to." Clearly, the woman was ill-equipped to take care of herself. The man then quickly got into the car and drove away; the other woman vanished. Fortunately, I was able to get the license plate of the car. The store manager confirmed that the woman had been in her store for at least 15 to 20 minutes.

I called 911 and made a verbal report. A patrol vehicle was sent out, but unfortunately they were unable to locate the car.

This scenario unfolded in less that three minutes. Yet the impressions it left on my son—those will last a lifetime. What Zach saw was sheer terror. He saw it not only in the woman’s frightened face, but he also saw two people terrorizing the one person he trusts the most as she was trying to do a humane deed.

Is this the kind of world our children should grow up in? When is enough enough?

I feel sad for that elderly woman because she will be victimized again. This was not a random, isolated situation. Will someone be there for her the next time it happens? I’m sure that these two caregivers learned nothing. They got away lucky this time.

I only hope that anyone reading this letter will take a moment to reflect on the plight of this woman and others in similar circumstances and know what they must do. And finally, I implore all of you to sit and talk with your children about what kindness and compassion is, so that their future may be a little less frightening. This is not the only solution, but maybe it’s a start.

Marla Bluestone-Winters

Westlake Village