Women in a Blanket on Dirt Road

M

Marie Mallory

Well-known member
On the way to get x'ray this morning we passed a woman on the dirt road sitting on the cold ground in 34F weather.
We figured she was just mad sitting in front of her house, then 2 hours later we came home and she is still sitting there on the still cold ground, we stopped and ask her if she was ok. She said yes and just waves us on, we ask her name and if she would like to come to the house and get warm. She said her name was Brenda Henderson and she was from here.
She said no she doesn't want any help.
 
It is sad. Some people choose to be homeless. Some homeless don't want to live in homeless shelters because of rules. I see people wrapped up in blankets sitting on the ground around here too. Most are beggars with a sign asking for money though. They have been offered jobs, but no. They don't want a job. Sometimes it is hard to know who is in need of help and who is not.

The scary part is that it can be a ploy for people to stop and help them and they will do harm to you. It is hard to be a good Samaritan anymore.
 
Something doesn't add up about the women, said she's forty five, has three daughters and her parents are about an hour away, and someone is coming to get her in a bit. She won't look you in the eye for more than a second or two. Acts like something is wrong, but won't say what it is. Has a bag and a backpack, and said she has a cell phone, when I asked if she wanted to call someone. Things she told us after we asked, on our second visit, to see if she needed help. :unsure:
 
Marie Mallory said:
On the way to get x'ray this morning we passed a woman on the dirt road sitting on the cold ground in 34F weather.
We figured she was just mad sitting in front of her house, then 2 hours later we came home and she is still sitting there on the still cold ground, we stopped and ask her if she was ok. She said yes and just waves us on, we ask her name and if she would like to come to the house and get warm. She said her name was Brenda Henderson and she was from here.
She said no she doesn't want any help.
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Why did you not call PD?
 
Marie Miller said:
Why did you not call PD?
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In Australia people are getting very wary about getting involved .

We was in Adelaide last week and while sitting in the car for 2 hours by the beach 10 km out of the city
I seen a lady who’d been reposted missing for 3 weeks walk right past our car , getting cans which we get 10 cents for out of the rubbish bins …..she was easily recognisable as she’s got large brown tea like stains in her face …..she looked clean …and was carrying a large bag ….as it was shown …she was… when she went missing …..



She’s from a town in South Australia 300+ km from the city , where she’d traveled to some 3 weeks earlier …..then her hand bag containing her personal info was found on a walking path ….some distance from the city ……she not touched her bank account….

but no trace of her until yesterday ..she was found in north Adealaide on the edge of the city …….with no explanation why she had not returned
to Port Pirie where she lives …. or been aware the police were looking for her ….strange to say the least https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...rch-of-missing-woman-patricia-ewens/106438732
 
Kate Ellery said:
In Australia people are getting very wary about getting involved .

We was in Adelaide last week and while sitting in the car for 2 hours by the beach 10 km out of the city
I seen a lady who’d been reposted missing for 3 weeks walk right past our car , getting cans which we get 10 cents for out of the rubbish bins …..she was easily recognisable as she’s got large brown tea like stains in her face …..she looked clean …and was carrying a large bag ….as it was shown …she was… when she went missing …..



She’s from a town in South Australia 300+ km from the city , where she’d traveled to some 3 weeks earlier …..then her hand bag containing her personal info was found on a walking path ….some distance from the city ……she not touched her bank account….

but no trace of her until yesterday ..she was found in north Adealaide on the edge of the city …….with no explanation why she had not returned
to Port Pirie where she lives …. or been aware the police were looking for her ….strange to say the least https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...rch-of-missing-woman-patricia-ewens/106438732
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You saw her and you did what? Nothing?
 
Marie Miller said:
You saw her and you did what? Nothing?
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I like 100’s of others don’t want to be involved ….she may have not liked being confronted it’s quite obvious she has some sort of mental heath issues.

it appears that’s what she did in a regularly , catch the bus to Adelaide …..do shopping at central market ( in the city ) camp out and return to Port Pirie when she felt like it …..I’m not sure why her family reported her missing if it was a usual habit of hers as reported on the news

She was camping in the city parklands ….nothing new about the camping in the city parklands…..many camp in the parklands that surround the city on all 4 sides … Adelaide is a square city …. within South Tec , North Tce , West Tce and South Tce
 
Kate Ellery said:
I like 100’s of others don’t want to be involved ….she may have not liked being confronted it’s quite obvious she has some sort of mental heath issues.

it appears that’s what she did in a regularly , catch the bus to Adelaide …..do shopping at central market ( in the city ) camp out and return to Port Pirie when she felt like it …..I’m not sure why her family reported her missing if it was a usual habit of hers as reported on the news

She was camping in the city parklands ….nothing new about the camping in the city parklands…..many camp in the parklands that surround the city on all 4 sides … Adelaide is a square city …. within South Tec , North Tce , West Tce and South Tce
Click to expand...

Your right, we were just talking about it .It was foolish.
No fool like an old fool, on our case two old fools.
 
Marie Mallory said:
Your right, we were just talking about it .It was foolish.
No fool like an old fool, on our case two old fools.
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I disagree! Compassion with intuition is never foolish. The two of you are country folks and have a gift others don't understand. That is the gift of assessing a situation and making a better judgement call than a city folk.

You saw an unusual situation. Something was off. A woman sitting on a blanket on a dirt road, isn't the common scam artist you see everyday, holding up signs, asking for money. "Anything helps" means they want money, not a job.

That lady had mental problems, that is certain, but also seems like a good person. She doesn't sound like she was homeless, just confused or perhaps was meeting someone she didn't want family to know about.

If you hadn't stopped, I bet both y'all would be thinking today that you should have. You would be troubled because you saw an unusual situation and didn't stop. A human in possible need, yet you drove on.

The other thing is, there were two of you. Had it just been one of you, then maybe you would have not stopped.

We have a guy here that has a place to live, gets social security, has food, latest i phone, and a nice state of the art walker, a real beauty! He used to sit on his walker on the sidewalk at the shopping center, all day, and read a book. People were always trying to give him food or money, so he now sits out in the parking lot in the area where baskets are stored. I asked him why he started sitting out there. He said so people would leave him alone. He said he comes to the shopping center to read and think. I apologized for bothering him and being so nosey.

Sometimes these odd situations just don't make sense to us. If I was to tell him, I spend hours on SOC trying to be a comedian, he might say, "Lady, why do you waste what is left of your life on a computer, inside, when you could be reading a good book, out in the cold, turning the pages with gloved hands, and be out in a parking lot among the action?" I guess my answer would be, "Because my life is :poop:.
 
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Marie Mallory said:
Your right, we were just talking about it .It was foolish.
No fool like an old fool, on our case two old fools.
Click to expand...
Many “homeless” people carry knives now days altho it’s against the law , I’m not sure about the woman who …went missing in Adelaide has a home in Port Pirie? ,……. PP isn’t the best place to live it’s got a lot of homelessness and many live in run down caravans …and spend thier pensions on booze and drugs ,so don’t pay rent ….get get thrown out …..or have the power disconnected from the site they are on to try to move them on …… how do I know . ? we used to attend a 3 day long weekend dance in PP once a year
and be advised not to stay at certain caravan parks for our own safety. ( we had a caravan )

The town thrives on a lead smelter ….so it’s grotty / stinky …blah …
en.wikipedia.org

Port Pirie - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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We have a famous homeless wanderer named Brandy. She will perhaps be on one of the new episodes of Alaska State Troopers as a Trooper unit with a film crew were seen interviewing her along the road. My wife knows here well through her charity work, and supplies her with food on a regular basis, as well as giving her winter clothing which she often apparently trades for drug money. Wife says she is a meek and mild and kind person when she is straight, but a veritable demon when she is high. She is often seen waking the roads naked in the summer, I guess having traded her clothing for other stuff. Somebody tried to break into my wife's office where she dispenses food form, and Brandy was seen working the door on the security cameras. The door was badly damaged and will have to be replaced as soon as things thaw. I have it held together with carriage bolts until then. I don't know if a small woman could do the damage, but no one else was caught on camera. It appears to me that perhaps someone tied a rope to the doorknob and tried to pull it with a vehicle. No food is stored in that office, but it is dispensed through that door. There was also a man who was a regular, but he must have done something serious as he was arrested and in now in jail.
 
Call me heartless, but I am more careful about who I render aid to now than I might have been several years ago. I've never been a fighter, but my muscles used to work a lot better than they do now, so I might have felt less vulnerable. I would be cautious about offering help to someone who is acting odd unless I was familiar with them or the situation. I have friends who act odd, so that's not always a deal-breaker, but odd people often do odd things, and some of these can be dangerous. It's been many years since I have even seen a hitchhiker now, as that is no longer a thing, but since I had spent a year and a half hitchhiking around the country, I felt obligated to pick up hitchhikers for quite a while, unless they seemed off in some way. Even as a hitchhiker, I didn't accept rides from everyone who stopped; some seemed off, and I would opt to go with my intuition, and I'd do that with people I offered rides to, as well. Today, like many other people, I try not to take notice of strange people in strange places. I have helped a fair number of people in my life, so I don't feel obligated to help everyone who seems to need help.
 
Kate Ellery said:
Many “homeless” people carry knives now days altho it’s against the law , I’m not sure about the woman who …went missing in Adelaide has a home in Port Pirie? ,……. PP isn’t the best place to live it’s got a lot of homelessness and many live in run down caravans …and spend thier pensions on booze and drugs ,so don’t pay rent ….get get thrown out …..or have the power disconnected from the site they are on to try to move them on …… how do I know . ? we used to attend a 3 day long weekend dance in PP once a year
and be advised not to stay at certain caravan parks for our own safety. ( we had a caravan )

The town thrives on a lead smelter ….so it’s grotty / stinky …blah …
en.wikipedia.org

Port Pirie - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...

I know this too is true and we try to be careful.
 
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