Dorothy Proctor

It's been a tough week. My Grandmother went missing on Saturday, December 8th, when she missed a luncheon. She left after church to make the trip to her friend's home for lunch (about 4 miles away from her church). She was next seen in Mineral (80 miles away) and then hours later in Chico. She was trying to get back to Paradise where she lived. The last people that she got directions from in Chico said she looked fine. She showed no indication that she had been lost for 8 hours. She seemed fine. They gave my Grandmother directions and she was able to repeat the directions back to them just fine. Unfortunately she was unable to get on the correct road going home. Our theory is that like most elderly people, it was hard for her to see at night and she just couldn't get to where she needed to be, even when she knew where that was.

She got onto a back road and eventually onto a dirt road where she got the car stuck in the mud. That was sometime after 7:30pm on Saturday – probably around 8 or 9.

We searched for her almost non-stop. My brother, Brett, was really instrumental in leading the whole effort. He inolved the media. A relative had access to an airplane and helped search. Several people drove and hiked the local roads where we thought she might be. Basically, we did everything we could do. The police and media and everyone in the town was very helpful. We had a lot leads to track down, so we were busy from early until late every day.

She was found right next to the car on Wednesday by a horseback rider who was out exercising the horse. We got the word Wednesday afternoon that it was my Grandmother. She didn't make it through the first night.

While we all knew that was the most likely outcome. There was still hope of a miraculous ending.

My Grandmother worked for the Adventist Church her entire career. She was an accountant for the New Jersey Conference and the Virginia Conference. Even at 87 years old she was still counting the money for her local Paradise church. I'm quite sure that I will get to see her again in heaven.