Bow Street residents helped Arlington police find a missing 79-year-old woman who walked away from Brightview on Sunday, Dec. 5.

“Talk about being in the right place at the right time," Gina Furtado told a friend. "My husband was just outside raking leaves because of the nice day and extra week of yard-waste pickup when he noticed a disoriented elderly woman."

In an email relayed by a friend to YourArlington and published with permission, Furtado wrote that the woman "wandered into the street, and our street is very busy, [and] he was able to get her attention. She was trying to walk home to Bedford."

Furtado's husband rang the bell to get his wife's help, and they called police. She said the woman had been missing for over two hours from Brightview, the nursing home off Summer Street.

"That was a long walk," she wrote; "thank goodness it’s not freezing, and she is on her way back to her family. Not a soul outside today [Dec. 5], so I am thankful he decided to work hard in the yard on his only day off."

A police report says that about 2:15 p.m. Sunday, officers responded to a report of a missing woman, who had been seen walking down the a steep Symmes Road toward Summer.

The report says the woman was missing about 40 minutes before police arrived. The reporting party said the resident exited the building while another resident was being assisted to their family vehicle by their personal aide.

Police said the woman's family was notified. She recently came to the facility last week, and was unfamiliar with the area, the report said.

Police issued an alert over the Boston Area Police Emergency Radio Network, and a search was done in the area, with negative results.

About 15 minutes after receiving this information, residents called to report that the missing woman was at their home. Police responded and transported the woman back to the facility.

Furtado added that her husband make "a fabulous point. He would like to know how she made it all the way to us, how did no one else bump into her from here to there when she was missing .... I feel like no one was willing to help her, there is no way she did not pass someone along Summer Street or on the bike path.”

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This news summary was published Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021.