SAVED BY KINDNESS

LA FERIA � One Minnesota family is grateful for the actions of a Good Samaritan in Nuevo Progreso. When Winter Texans Olaf and Alice Grimsbo of Grand Rapids, Minn., went to the border town south of the Rio Grande on Dec. 6 for shopping and a visit to Alice�s dentist, Olaf � who suffers from Alzheimer�s disease � wandered away. Neighbors Irene Keener and Juanita Martin went along on the trip to Mexico, Alice Grimsbo said. �While I was in at the dentist, they took Olaf for his haircut and then a shoeshine in Nuevo Progreso,� she said. �When I was finished, we went to eat and then we went into the El Disco store.� While the three women were in the restroom, Olaf Grimsbo disappeared from the store, his wife said. As she related on Wednesday all the places she and her companions searched for Olaf, panic returned to her voice. �I asked him to wait for us, but I guess he forgot because he�s had Alzheimer�s about seven years,� Alice said. �He was nowhere to be found. I suppose he was looking for us.� The three women, aided by Irene�s ability to speak Spanish, frantically searched. �We looked all over the El Disco store; we went up and down the street; we went back to the dentist�s office many times because we thought maybe he had gone there,� Alice said. �We went down to the school, way down south in Nuevo Progreso, and to the other mall,� she said. �We checked all over Nuevo Progreso; we went to the police station; we went in stores and to bars,� Alice said. Olaf, who has a metal rod in one leg, implants in both knees and in his right hip, walks with a cane, she said. But despite his condition, her husband can walk very fast, she said. They looked for him from about 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 6, then decided to cross the international bridge, thinking Olaf may have gone to look for them on the Texas side of the border, Alice said. Border guards, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and sheriff�s deputies were unable to help, she said. La Feria police also were unable to help, but they advised the three women not to go back to Nuevo Progreso�s bar-lined streets after dark, Alice said. Finally she returned home, she said. �I didn�t get much sleep. I prayed all night.� Fellow Winter Texans at Citrus Village Mobile Home Park, and back home in Minnesota, formed prayer chains, seeking divine assistance to speed Olaf�s return, she said. She called their son Gerald Grimsbo, who is an airline pilot, and other family members, Alice said. Gerald made plans to rush to Nuevo Progreso. Television stations in the Valley carried accounts of Olaf�s disappearance with his picture, Alice said. Neighbors from their mobile home park returned with her to Nuevo Progreso on Dec. 7 to continue the search. A neighbor made copies of pictures of Olaf to distribute to police and storekeepers in Nuevo Progreso. But on Dec. 7, they received good news, she said. Irene Keener and two men from the mobile home park went to the police station, where they learned Olaf was safe, Irene said. �The Lord was with him, Jesus was with him,� Keener said. A man with a pickup truck had offered her husband a ride to his home, but Olaf declined that offer, Alice said. Her husband accepted a ride to a church, where he was fed, given a cot for the night and given breakfast again in the morning, she said. Keener said she believes the man is someone she knew in Nuevo Progreso and she had asked him to look for Olaf. �I�ve got a lot of connections over there,� Keener proudly of Nuevo Progreso. Olaf said Wednesday he cannot remember the name of the church or what he ate, but he thinks he slept in the church sanctuary. �That was the best Christmas present ever to have Olaf back, safe and healthy,� Alice said, hugging her husband on Wednesday. �He even still had the money he had in his billfold, $40,� she said. �He should have paid them something for the food he ate.� On Jan. 15, she has another dental appointment in Nuevo Progreso and hopes then to find the man who took her husband to the church, Alice said. She and her family and neighbors also want to find the church where he was sheltered and thank church members there, Alice said. Back in Minnesota, Olaf is a retired potato farmer, Alice said. He also is an accomplished carpenter, plumber, electrician and inventor, she said proudly. Their hometown is known as the hometown of Judy Garland and there is a Judy Garland museum there, she said. Every year there is a big Judy Garland festival, too, she said. �The Munchkins (from The Wizard of Oz) and movie stars all come to participate,� she said with a smile.