Carol Miller spotted a troubling situation Wednesday as she drove over Interstate 5 on East Evergreen Boulevard in Vancouver.
“There was this gal, she was almost halfway over the railing” of the I-5 overpass, Miller said. “She was kind of lying on the railing, trying to roll herself over. She was trying hard.”
It was nearly noon and Miller, 68, was on her way to visit a friend in a convalescent home. Instead, Miller slammed on her brakes, pushed open her truck’s door and ran toward the woman.
Leaving her truck in the roadway, she called out to a man walking by, asking him to help. Miller and the man pulled the woman back from the edge of what would have been a 40-foot fall into freeway traffic.
Miller said the only thought that went through her head was: “I just had to go get her.”
A bicyclist called 911, and Miller held the woman while police and medical personnel responded to the scene.
“I had her on the ground. I was holding her really tight and telling her everything’s going to be OK,” Miller said. “I said, ‘Why did you want to do this?’ She said, ‘I want my mom.'”
The woman told Miller that her mother was dead and that “nobody loves me.”
“I whispered in her ear that I loved her and God loved her,” Miller said.
While the woman sobbed, Miller continued to hold her.
“She needed hugs. She needed to be held,” she said.
Police came and questioned the 56-year-old woman, who was eventually taken to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center for a mental evaluation, according to the Vancouver Police Department.
“She was going to die. If I hadn’t have been there right then and there, she would have,” Miller said. “I think it was her mom’s spirit that had me right there at that time.”
Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said it’s not often someone saves a life in the way that Miller did. Kapp said Miller’s actions also prevented emergency personnel from responding to a traumatic scene.
Kapp added that with winter settling in and the holidays around the corner, “it’s a lonely time of year for some people.”
The Clark County Crisis Line operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to provide help for adults and children experiencing a mental health crisis, including thoughts of suicide. Call 800-626-8137 or 360-696-9560 and a professional counselor will answer.
When Miller was 12 years old, she said, her mother killed herself, so Miller said she was especially shaken up by the incident Wednesday.
Once the police and ambulance left, she went about her plans, stopping at Burgerville to pick up lunch for her friend. She told her story to a woman behind the counter.
“My adrenaline was pumping so hard that I had to tell her,” she said. “When she handed the sack to me, she came around the counter and hugged me. … That made me relax right there. It made me feel better because I needed a hug, too.”
