Lucky Break for Trapped Woman

May 2nd, 2008

The newspaper boy unlocked a side door and saw the couple about two feet inside, 84-year-old Blanche Roberts helpless looking right back at Pitts. Her right leg was pinned beneath the body of her 77-year-old husband Fred, who apparently had died last Wednesday evening of a heart attack after mowing the lawn.

Her only request was for water. She knew her name and her relatives, but described her husband as “sleeping,” said Pitts, who delivers the Southern Illinoisan, published in nearby Carbondale, Illinois. The coronoer said Fred Roberts likely died of a heart attack, based on accounts from the Roberts’ visitors that day.

Blanche Roberts was taken to a hospital in nearby Herrin. The hospital on Tuesday wouldn’t confirm whether she still was being treated there; Pitts said the couple’s relatives told his wife Monday that she was doing fine.

Pitts has delivered on that route for three years but said he never met the Robertses before Sunday. But he thinks fondly of Blanche Roberts, who often tipped him in letters. Lucky for the curious newspaper delivery boy, eh?

Entry Filed under: Odd Stuff, Weird News