A troubling incident by the riverside

Turning into our street on Sunday afternoon we noticed a disturbing sight. Someone was leading a tottering figure away from the bank of the Rideau River towards a bench. Must be ill, we thought. Chris parked the car in a hurry and rushed across to see what he could do to help. The other helper had vanished by then, leaving the sick man alone. It was someone off the streets. He looked a terrible sight, cut and bruised about the face, and in an advanced state of drunkenness, the bottle of spirits in his hand almost empty. He was foaming at the lips from a mouthful of tablets he had ingested. Hardly comprehensible, he tried to beg Chris not to call for help, but Chris was already dialling 911 for an ambulance and describing the situation over the phone. The sick man was shivering with cold and his hands were numb. He needed to be treated for hypothermia as well as everything else.

We promised the man he'd be warmer soon, once we'd got him inside a vehicle, but perhaps he was past caring. He was gazing into our eyes all the time, though, and said thank you to Chris.

We stayed with him. Help wasn't long in coming, but it wasn't an ambulance; it was two police cars. (Presumably there's a standard procedure for dealing with occurrences like this.) A tall policeman strode over and took charge.

"What's your name?" (the man muttered a first name) ... "Do you have another name? No? Have you got a piece of paper on you that'll tell us? Where have you been today, to the 'Shepherds'? You've drunk a lot of alcohol, haven't you?" etc. The policeman did not speak unkindly, but was very firm.

The man could hardly answer any of the questions, so Chris and the policeman between them dragged him over to the police car. The policewoman from the other car seemed to recognise the down-and-out.

"We'll deal with this now," the policeman told us. "Thanks, guys!" That was our dismissal.

We have no idea what happened after that, whether the man was taken to hospital or not, but he has been on our minds since. The river had drawn him like a magnet to its banks and if nobody had been around to prevent it, he would probably have let himself fall into the icy water, and his troubles would have been over once and for all.