MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - An elderly woman who needs a wheelchair to get around and received some help getting home from a Miami Beach firefighter is sharing her gratitude for his gesture.
Sylvia Collins was struggling to get home after a bus stop mix-up, but she said Miami Beach Fire Lt. Oliver Hanna went above and beyond to help her, Thursday.
“They were wonderful to me, actually,” Collins said. “They babysat me yesterday. I told them, ‘You’re babysitting’ and they, ‘Oh, no, no.’ I said, ‘Yes, you are.'”
Collins said she got off the bus at the wrong stop because she was disoriented from the rainy weather.
The 78-year-old Miami Beach resident said she was on her way home from the doctor’s office Thursday, and because it was her first time taking that particular route, she got off two blocks south of her home at 71st Street and Trouville Esplanade.
“Around that time, heavy downpours, visibility very low and that next incoming storm was there, so we try to get her out of the water and out of the rain before we got another downpour,” Hanna said.
Hanna said fire rescue got a call from a concerned resident who saw that Collins was lost.
“We asked her if we could put her in our truck, take her out of the wheelchair and bring the wheelchair with us and take her to her house via rescue,” Hanna said. “She said no. She did not want to be lifted out of her wheelchair, so instead, we decided to push her.”
Collins let Hanna wheel her back home. “They insisted. They said, ‘No, no, we can’t let you do that because we’re worried about you. We have to take care of you.'”
Her neighbors said despite health issues and setbacks, Collins doesn’t let it hold her back or ask for help.
“She likes to do things for herself,” said neighbor Heloisa Schnaider, “and afterward, she’ll pay you for something, and we say, ‘Oh, Sylvia, please. I don’t do it for money, we want to help you.'”
Collins said she was grateful for the helping hand and doesn’t want the kind actions of fire rescuers to go unnoticed.
“They don’t complement rescue sometimes, or the police,” Collins said. “That’s what they need to know, that you guys are always there. You’re always there, around the clock.”
Collins said that when she got off the bus and asked several people for directions, no one could help her, so she was really grateful for those firefighters who stepped in.
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