27) Mr. Go-With-The-Flow.

Eventually Mr. & Mrs. Go-With-The-Flow became too frail to come to the shops on their own so they had a carer who would drive them in help them with the shopping and take them home again. They did not need us to deliver their groceries any more but they would always say Hello when we saw them in the store and if we weren’t busy we would have coffee with them and spend a little time chatting. They liked the hustle and bustle of the shopping centre and would often come in on their own on the bus if they did not have any shopping to carry home.

One day when we were very busy we came up the escalator in front of Coles and saw Mrs. Go-With-The-Flow sitting on one of the benches surrounded by security guards. She looked very flustered and confused so we went and spoke to her to ask if there was anything we could do. She was pleased to see a familiar face but explained that there was not much we could do as the security guards were doing all that could be done. She could not find her husband. She said one minute he was there beside her and the next he was gone. To make matters worse he had taken her walking frame with him and because she could not walk more than a step or two without it she could not look for him, so she had had to call on security for help. She assured us that they were being very kind and that she was in good hands. As we were particularly busy that day we said that we would have to go and do the rest of our deliveries but promised to check that she was alright when we came back.

We had a pretty long run with lots of parcels to drop off so it was at least two hours by the time we got back to check on her but by then Mr. Go-With-The-Flow had been found and they had both been put in a taxi and taken home. The security guard told us that they had found the old man right out of the shopping complex and at the end of Karalta road, doing a high speed getaway on his wife’s Zimmer Frame. He had no idea where he was or where he was going which is quite sad but we had to laugh at the thought of him Going-With-The-Flow down Karalta Road. Probably at a speed of about 5 hours per kilometre. Was he running away like a naughty child or was he remembering his time in the navy and going off to join up once again?