Every Sunday, Prostler Samuels would wait for a bus that would take him from Woodbine nursing home to the Alfred Street Baptist Church for the 11 a.m. service. When the volunteer bus driver drove the 96-year-old man back home, the two would stop at McDonald’s where the elderly man would buy a hamburger.
But last Sunday was different.
Interim Pastor Faye Gunn preached a sermon based on the twenty-second chapter of Genesis, a passage in which she told congregants that Abraham’s faith was put to the test. When the service ended, Samuels got on the bus along with a group of rambunctious children — a group that did not usually take the volunteer-driven transport. Church officials say that the kids were making so much noise that the bus driver became distracted, removed from his normal routine and sidetracked by dealing with the noisy children. He apparently forgot that Samuels was still on the bus when he pulled into the parking lot of the church around 2:30 p.m., leaving Samuels with nothing more than a suit jacket to battle the freezing temperatures as the winter’s first snow began to fall.
“When he sleeps, he sort of leans over to one side,” said James Garrett, who has been a deacon at the church since 1983. “And he’s a short man. So it’s easy to see how the driver might not have seen him sitting in the back of the bus.”
Staff members at the nursing home became concerned when Samuels did not return from church, and they called the Alexandria Police Department. But when an officer arrived at the church, the doors were locked and the lights were off. The police contacted Woodbine officials, who told the police that they weren’t worried about Samuels.
“The staff member at Woodbine indicated that she might have an idea who the resident might be with,” said police spokeswoman Amy Bertsch. “That ended our involvement.”
FOR 18 HOURS, Samuels sat in the bus — unable to call for help and freezing as the temperatures dropped below 30 degrees. When church officials checked their voice mail the next morning, they heard a message from the nursing home inquiring about Samuels’s whereabouts. That’s when a church employee walked out into the parking lot and made a shocking discovery — the 96-year-old man was suffering from hypothermia.
“He wanted to know where his hamburger was,” said Garrett during a Tuesday afternoon press conference in front of the church.
Within hours of checking into INOVA Alexandria Hospital, Samuels’s condition was upgraded from “critical” to “good.” Gunn, who became interim pastor on Jan. 1 after the retirement of the Rev. John Peterson, said that she was thankful that Samuels made it through the ordeal unscathed.
“We are confident that God will restore him to good health,” said Gunn. “We’re praying for the vehicle’s driver as well.”
Church officials said the driver, whose name has not been publicly released, has been volunteering his time to operate the bus for the past year, a job they said requires special training. They said that bus service this Sunday has been suspended while church leaders investigate the incident and create a new 24-hour emergency response system.
In the meantime, Garrett said, the driver remains in a state of “emotional distress.”
“We made arrangements for him to be at a hotel,” Garrett said. “One of our deacons took him out to dinner.”
SAMUELS IS A fixture of the church, where one pew toward the back was shortened to allow access for his wheelchair. He has been attending services at the Alfred Street Baptist Church for more than 30 years. Several church members have visited him in the hospital, where they say Samuels is in good spirits.
“He is jovial in spirit,” said Gunn. “He seems excited, like his old self.”
Bertsch said that police detectives are investigating the incident as a possible neglect case, with the commonwealth’s attorney’s office making the final determination as to whether or not charges should be brought. Meanwhile, members of the church say that the situation reminds them that they should be vigilant in looking out for their elderly neighbors and friends.
“My mom is in a wheelchair, and this has caused me to think about her,” said Geri Baldwin, a member of the church. “This man shouldn’t have been left out there like this.”
Gunn said that the incident has inspired the theme for her next sermon: The Lord will provide.