There’s no telling how long this elderly woman in South Carolina would have been laying on the ground, hurt and alone, had it not been for one kind stranger.
Fred Austin, who works for Littlejohn Portable Toilets, was on his usual route when he saw the woman laying on the ground, just across the street from the house he was servicing. After checking on her, he rushed to get help.
“Ran to the neighbor’s house, knocked on the door. Didn’t get a response,” Fred said. “By that time, I panicked. I said, well, it’s just me and her. I told her, ‘I’m going to pick you up and get you in the house.'”
EMS arrived soon after and took the elderly woman to the hospital where she’s being treated for a broken cheekbone and hip.
Once medics were contacted, so were the woman’s children, all of which live in a different city.
“I get this call from my sister who said, ‘Hey, Mom has had a fall. We’re calling 911,'” Sanders said.
Hopeful that his mom’s Ring doorbell camera caught what happened, he pulled up the footage. In one clip it showed her walking outside to garden, as usual. But in the next clip, he could see Fred, a man he’s never met, carrying his mother to safety.
In the clip, Fred can be heard giving the woman words of reassurance like, “I’ve got you and I’m going to stay with you.”
“Just the thought of her on the sidewalk, bleeding is just your worst nightmare,” Sanders said.
As their mom begins to recover, they’re calling Fred her guardian angel, and they hope to one day meet in person so they can repay him.
Fred, on the other hand, insists that there’s no need.
“I don’t want to be named a hero,” Fred said. “It’s just something I was supposed to do. Help someone. It ain’t about a pat on the back or being a hero or anything like that. It’s about citizenship. Just being a citizen and helping somebody.”
Share this article with a friend to celebrate Fred’s spectacular display of citizenship.
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