Waitress Calls The Police When She Notices Elderly Customer Hasn’t Shown Up In Days

Sep 03, 2021 by apost team

For those who live alone, especially the elderly, there are risks that can occur in one's own home. For example, if you were to slip over or not be able to move for some reason, it could turn into a much bigger problem than if you had someone else in the house to come and help you. Unfortunately for one octogenarian from the UK, she experienced this firsthand. But luckily for her, she had a guardian angel who happened to be the waitress at her favorite cafe.

In Oct. 2016, Doreen Mann, an 87-year-old woman from Essex decided to take a relaxing bath. When she went to get out of the tub, Mann felt that she couldn’t move her legs. She tried to shift and stand up but her legs just would not lift her. A story that could have ended in tragedy turned out to be a lesson in friendship when a waitress at Mann’s favorite restaurant noticed when she didn’t come in for a few days and called for help.

It all started when Mann became a regular at Tomassi’s in Southend Essex after she started living alone when her husband moved into a care facility. Sonia Congrave, who has been a waitress at the business for more than 15 years, always noticed when Mann came in on weekends to have lunch and a glass of wine. The two women, aged decades apart, struck up a warm relationship that's common for locals of restaurants and the people who work there. In Mann's case, this friendship saved her life. 

The story begins when Mann did not show up on her usual day that October. Congrave didn't think much of it, assuming that perhaps a cousin of hers was in town. But then when she didn’t show up on Saturday, Congrave knew something was wrong and decided to call the police. "Doreen is an amazing lady," Congrave said to BBC in 2016. "When she didn't come in for a day or two, we realized something was wrong."

It was Oct. 10 by the time the police came to Mann's apartment, where she had been stuck in her bathtub since the early morning of Oct. 7. At that point, she had been stranded in her bathtub for a total of four days.

In order to survive, Mann filled the tub with warm water or kept herself covered with a towel for warmth. She did not have any food but was able to drink the water from the tap to stay hydrated. When the rescuers eventually found her, Mann’s knees were bruised from her many attempts to get up out of the tub. Mann went through a horrible ordeal but was able to keep panic at bay while she was trapped. She said, "I went to turn over onto my knees to get out of the bath, and I couldn't. My body wouldn't turn over. I don't understand how calm I kept. It wasn't natural. Something kept telling me 'keep calm.'"

Mann was incredibly lucky with her ordeal, considering she could access fresh drinking water from the tap to stay hydrated despite not having any food, as well as the fact she thought to keep herself warm by adding hot water to the tub and using a towel to cover herself. 

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Nevertheless, if it hadn't been for Congrave, it's not clear how Mann's situation would have ended. Thankfully, the waitress felt strongly about checking on Mann when she didn’t show up on her typical day. She followed her instincts and urged others to do the same, as she told On Demand News:

"Pleased, proud of her and I'm just glad she's ok. I'm glad that ... nothing bad happened. And I just think it would be nice for us all to just take a bit of time out and remember your neighbors or remember the lady down the road you haven’t seen for a few days. Just give a knock or a phone call and just say ‘Are you alright?’” 

Mann described the cafe where Congrave works, Tomassi’s, as "her second home" and that she usually eats there as often as she can. She added that Congrave is an "angel" for her actions.

But while her ordeal was terrifying, after the incident, Mann showed that she hadn't lost her sense of humor. She told the news outlet with a laugh:

"I kept thinking well I suppose I could die in a worse place than this. You know, you think of all those sorts of things when you're stuck."

Congrave said she planned to head over to Mann's regularly to help her in and out of the bathtub. She also bought Mann a cell phone in case of any more emergencies. 

This incident reminds us that it is important to check on our friends and neighbors if they are at risk of falling, having a heart attack or stroke and live alone. 

What do you think of this incredible story? Do you know of anyone who went through something like this? Let us know and pass this on to your friends and family to spread awareness.