Compassionate Red Deerian steps up when elderly stranger enters his home

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The 27-year-old is a Red Deer College student looking to earn his Bachelor of Education. McGrath said he has always been good with people.

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His growing concern was to figure out how she had gotten to his home as well as where she was supposed to be. Adella kept speaking about a little boy who lived “near here” who she was supposed to be helping.

“It was all coherent but near the end she talked about a boy that she was trying to find the house of because she was trying to help him go to school because he didn’t want to go to school,” said McGrath.

The more Adella spoke, the more McGrath said things just weren’t adding up. He said he knew he needed to find some identification for the woman, whose name he didn’t know at this point, as well as an address or contact information for family.

While talking to McGrath, Adella revealed she had lived on a farm and had three children of her own, one of which she said lives in the area. It was then that she mentioned she had moved to Red Deer from B.C.

“Once she said that I figured out she really was lost and I figured it had to be some kind of dementia that brought her to where she was trying to find something from her past,” said McGrath.

Once Adella produced some ID for him, McGrath found a receipt for a retirement home and was able to leave his mom in the room with their guest while he phoned to find out information.

The retirement home was eventually able to confirm that Adella did, in fact, reside there, but that she had just moved there on the Monday or Tuesday.

A staff member from the home arrived to pick Adella up, but McGrath said they all wondered still how she had gotten there.

“We were looking on the security cameras to figure out how she got here because all of our gates are locked but she walked in the back door,” said McGrath.

He noticed that she had a walker before entering the home and later went to retrieve it from down the block. Adella’s daughter later came to pick it up and thanked McGrath for his help.

“It’s not every day that you have someone walk in your home. You always think what you would do if someone did. I am good with working with people, and even my mom started to freak out, but I told her we needed to just keep calm and not over react so we could figure this out.”

Adella was home safe and sound after her 1.5 hour visit with McGrath. He said it was nice to meet her and that he’ll never forget the experience.