The news these days is often depressing at worst and frustrating at best. It’s easy to let it get us down. Never fear… The News Blender has you covered. Once a week we feature Something Good and, in return, all you have to do is tell us something good that has happened to you this week, something you are thankful for, a joke, a cute animal story, an inspiring tale of heroics, a Random Act of Kindness… SOMETHING good.
Today’s something good is a young man who paid attention.
On January 20, one of the coldest nights of the year in Caruthersville, Missouri, Thema Bates went missing, according to KAIT8. The temperature dropped to 16 degrees and when the 82-year-old dementia patient was discovered missing around 3 am, everyone feared the worst.
“She didn’t have no shoes on,” Renee Bates, Thelma’s daughter, said.
“I was worried sick,” eldest daughter Marian Bates said. “The whole community came together.”
A Silver Alert went out to local law enforcement and the community went looking for Thelma. While he was in the convenience store around 6:30 or 7:00 that morning, the cashier mentioned that there was an elderly woman missing to Macario Chism, a sanitation worker.
On his route, Cario was looking for Thelma so when he noticed a shed door fly open in the wind, it caught his eye. When he saw a woman stand up and fall back down, he knew he’d found her. Cario ran to Thelma, picked her up and carried her to his warm truck. He put her inside, wrapped her up in his coat and blared his horn to notify the other searchers that he had found Thelma.
She was taken to the hospital and treated for some cuts and frostbite to her feet but was otherwise fine.
“Blood pressure was fine. Vital signs were fine,” Renee told KAIT8. “There was nothing wrong with her.”
It was an outcome no one honestly expected.
While searching for Thelma, Cario was thinking of his grandmother. He said, “She died in my arms. I couldn’t save her so I was just happy to save Mrs. Bates.”
In March, Macario was honored by his community, with a cash prize and applause all around. But best of all, he got a big hug from Thelma.
A hero who was in the right place at the right time is something good! Now it’s your turn… Tell me something good!
