My husband used to have his own cleaning business. He had commercial accounts that he cleaned when they were closed so he didn't have specific hours he had to be there. His schedule varied and I didn't always know exactly what account he was cleaning, or if he had to run to the hardware store for more supplies or if he had stopped by our rental units to check on something. There were a number of reasons why he could be running late. He typically called when he was twenty minutes away so I could be sure dinner was ready for him. On Fridays it was usually around 7 pm unless he decided to do some Saturday night work too, but he was still usually home by 8 pm.
On this particular December night, I had thought he had said he would be home by 7 pm. As the hands on the clock kept getting further away from 7 pm, I decided to call his cell phone. No answer. I had cooked one of his favorite dinners and I was trying to keep it warm. By 8 pm I figured he wouldn't mind if I ate without him. He would have to reheat his in the microwave at this point. Maybe he had stopped at a fast-food place and wouldn't even need dinner. That happened on rare occasions.
As the minutes ticked on, I started getting a little nervous. I tried calling several times more and still no answer. At 9 pm I decided it was time to take action and track him down. I believed he had to be at one of two accounts, one I didn't even know how to get there and had to look up the address. I decided to start at the one I knew.
All the horrible thoughts started passing through my mind--a heart attack or fallen and broken something and couldn't move to get to the phone, a car accident. He could have left the cell phone in the car, which he has done a few times. Maybe his car broke down and he was freezing somewhere. Or maybe he left me. Well, that was just a fleeting thought that snuck in there.
My imagination kept feeding itself. My mind was running out of room from the dirt piles of all the rabbit trails it was going down. I didn't know whether to be nervous or angry at him. I thought if the worst happened, people would come to the house and it was a mess. Well, I couldn't tidy now, I had to save him--if he needed saving. Aren't you glad you can't see all my thoughts all the time?
It was a freezing night and I was shaking from the cold and maybe my nerves too. As I drove in the dark, I tried to see the vehicles going past me in the opposite direction to see if he was heading home. I know the shape of his car, but was trying to remember the license number as those reflected in the dark. Nothing looked familiar. It was about twenty minutes before I reached the first account that I was going to try. There was his car!
I looked in the windows of the building. I saw his coat, but not him. The doors were locked and I knocked and yelled. These were heavy duty windows and doors and a huge building, so it was not likely he would hear that. I walked all around the building and tried all doors and looked in all windows as best I could stepping on the crusty snow.
Next I drove my car as close to the door as I could and honked and honked my horn hoping he would hear and come.
Finally I called 911. I did it as a last resort because I didn't want to be reprimanded for calling 911 for a non-emergency if he was just cleaning.
They arrived in less than five minutes without sirens. They asked me if he had any medical issues. I told them and also told them that I remembered there had been issues with the elevator in the building.
They tried pounding on all the doors and checking all windows, as I had. The fire department was also on their way and an employee of the building with a key. Before they all arrived, the police were able to get in through a window.
As soon as the cop went in he yelled George's name and he heard the elevator buzzer. He had been stuck in the elevator--for FOUR hours!! The fireman and employee arrived. There were instructions in the office and a key to some panel to free up the elevator stuck between floors.
George should tell his view of this story...his cell phone didn't work in the elevator; the emergency call box didn't have a phone; the emergency buzzer is internal, so no one was in the building to hear it. He even tried to spell out Morse Code with it. He had no fear of a city black out or the end of the world, as my mind surely would have gone. He did have light in the elevator and he did hear the furnace kick on but he was starting to get cold in his t-shirt. He had his cleaning equipment and garbage barrel with him. He tried to wrap garbage bags around him for warmth. He figured the worst-case scenario would be that he would be there until 9 am the next morning, so he tried to turn his roll of paper towels into a pillow. There was no way to get really comfortable. He actually did have a book with him, so he was able to pass the time reading, but he was hungry too.
George and the police tried to make me a hero. I mean do they really think I would have gone to bed and not wonder or worry where he was? Who wouldn't go out looking for their husband/wife in that case? I didn't feel like a hero at all. I told him if he had "pulled a Tiger Woods", who was in the media for cheating on his wife, that I would hunt him down like tonight. He said, "Sure and where would you look first?" I said that I'd call up his boss for his other part time job and find out all the names of his elderly dial-a-ride customers. We laughed.
After that when George cleaned that account, he put the vacuum and trash barrel in the elevator and let them ride the elevator by themselves while he took the stairs. Surprisingly, this didn't sour him to elevators in general, as it would probably have done to me, but then again, how often are we in buildings with no one else in it?
Although it may not sound that way, I tried to keep my cool and despite the bad thoughts creeping in, I tried to think optimistically too, but nowhere as calm and collected as George was. I know I would not have reacted so calmly if it had been claustrophobic me in the elevator. I leave you with God's word that George practiced that night: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7
This happened in 2009
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