Lanai’s Diary: How would you have handled a Bull in a china shop situation?

The craziest thing happened yesterday and I wanted to share it in hope I can get some insight  from SLE fans on what could have been done differently or how you would have handled a situation like this.

In the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic many are staying home and limiting themselves to the people they come in contact with. It is becoming the norm for many people, especially those who work outside of the home. At the end of a long day, people just want to come home, shower, have dinner and relax to repeat the cycle the next day,

So, it is Monday evening. I just finished up dinner with the family and settled on the back deck to just chill and soak up the tail end of summer. I look through the sliding glass door to see a complete stranger waddling her way through my foyer, kitchen and to the back door like a bull in a china shop where she opens it and drunkenly asks where Marie was. Stumped by this display of a stranger's sloppy drunk debacle. My husband got up from his seats asking who she was.  I followed behind as he ushered her back out the front door. Mind you she was not wearing a mask, nor was she coherent enough to realize she just walked into the wrong house.  She reached for her car keys and attempted to get in her car which was in our driveway about 6 inches from the garage door. You can see she clearly hit a curb as her front passenger side tire was low on air.

The girl looked in her early to mid 20’s. My husband told her if she tried to drive off he was calling the cops. That was enough to make her sober up for a second and plead for him not to do that. He asked her to call someone to come pick her up.

By this time, I was on the front porch with my two adult kids who looked completely bewildered at this drunk woman swaying in the driveway. About 10 minutes passed by the time she was able to make out the numbers in her phone and call…. Her mother. I could hear her mother's voices freaking out but could not make out what she was saying. The woman then tried to hand the cellphone to my hubs who was holding his hand out telling her to keep her distance and put it on speaker phone.  He went on to provide our address to the woman on the other end.

Within 15 minutes an SUV pulls up at the edge of the driveway and a man walks out. It must have been her father who seemed to know exactly what to do as if this wasn't the first time he has bailed her out of a situation like this. Her mother was very thankful to us for making sure she did not get back in her car and revealed this was not the first time this happened. Apparently her daughter wrecked her previous car and has no memory of it.

The girl's father got in the car with his daughter. You can hear him scolding her through the closed window as he pulled out the driveway. Her mother got back in her SUV and followed them off. We watched until they disappeared around the curve of the road.

We all went inside to disinfect wherever she might have touched and feeling like WTF just happened.

After thinking about it, I wondered if we made the right decision. Hubs didn't want to call the cops because he felt this young person needed help from her parents and knew that being arrested for trespassing on top of fines and a possible DUI would not be the best solutions.

 I have no tolerance for drunk drivers or alcoholics. Period. They destroy lives and play the victim when their whole lives fall apart. They put the people who love them thru hell.  Some families and friends had enough of the bullshit and gave up on trying to help them. 

My husband handled it like a father who just wanted to make sure the girl was safe and left it in the parents hands to get the girl some help.

Me on the other hand wanted to call the police and get the ball rolling on giving this girl a wake up call.  Sometimes people need to hit rock bottom with no choice but to rise up and do something about their lives.

In my mind, this is a person who could do this again and  potentially kill someone being on the road in that state. This is someone who has no regard for herself or others. Not to mention coming into my home during a pandemic without a mask. Should I worry that this careless person could have been exposed out there and brought it into my safe place? I don’t feel any remorse for a person that has threatened my sense of safety.

How would you have handled the situation? Share your comments below.