A North Carolina family is thanking a Roswell police officer and dispatcher for an act of kindness that helped reunite an 88-year-old woman and her brother.
Betty Morris was driving from Tampa, Fla., to her brother’s home in Sylva, N.C., when she found herself lost at a gas station on Holcomb Bridge Road in Roswell on Tuesday.
A good Samaritan called police to report Morris, veteran Roswell Police Officer Bill Lowe told Channel 2 Action News.
“It was very obvious she was confused as to how she got from Tampa, Fla., to Roswell, Ga., over about a 30-hour period,” Lowe said.
Body camera footage from the officer shows Morris hand Lowe a handwritten list of directions.
“It was obvious she was well off track to get to North Carolina,” said Lowe. “She slept on the shoulder of the road in her car when it got dark.”
Lowe took Morris to North Fulton Hospital for a checkup and asked dispatcher Christy Way to contact Morris’ brother, Don Hill, who lived 160 miles away.
“He didn’t sound as if taking a long road trip would be something he’d be able to do,” Way said. “Bill called, and he said, 'The only thing I can see to happen is if I drive her.’ I said, ‘You know I was thinking the same thing.' That’s someone’s grandmother and she needs to be with her family.”
Lowe said the hospital provided free food to Morris and that the company American Towing gassed up the car and gave it a free oil change.
After the pair finished their work shifts, the Morris sat in the pasenger's seat while the dispatcher took the wheel and followed Lowe in his personal truck. They traveled from Roswell all the way to North Carolina.
“She was just sweet as can be,” Way said of Morris.
Lowe said the trip was for a noble purpose.
“She and her brother represent the greatest generation,” he said. “I just know that for every mile and minute we put behind Roswell, she was closer to getting back to her brother, so that made it all worthwhile.”
Lowe’s camera also captured the reunion between Morris and her brother.
Hill told Channel 2 Action News on Friday that he was amazed Lowe and Way would drive his sister to him on their time off.
“Even when they got here with her, I couldn’t hardly believe it,” Hill said. “I’m a Christian, and I believe in God, and I believe he had a lot to do with it.”
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