BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org

CANEY — To those people who scoff at the notion of small-town life, believe government employees are not effective with their work, and have the notion that God does not answer prayers, then let the story of Alpha Ross change your mind.

Ross, an elderly Caney resident, lives by herself and has tended to herself without any assistance. She admits her octogenarian years are slowing her pace and her body, however she still makes her own food, drives herself to the store, and cleans her own home.

That was precisely what she was doing on the afternoon of Thursday, March 25 when, after taking a bath, she decided to clean her bathtub.

However, when she bent over the porcelain tub to begin cleaning, she somehow slipped and fell in the tub head first . . . leaving her body in a position where she was unable to pull herself out of the tub. Nor could Alpha move or wiggle her body into a position where she could gain any momentum to free herself from her troubling condition.

So, because she lives by herself, Alpha Ross was totally helpless as she laid in a cold, porcelain tub . . . for five days.
Beginning on Thursday, March 25 and continuing through Friday, Saturday and into Sunday, Alpha Ross yelled for help, hoping that her cries would hit the ears of neighbors.

However, her pleas would only bounce off the closed door to her bathroom, keeping the world from hearing about her perilous condition.

She obviously had no food in her tub but did have the smarts to drink water from the bathtub faucet. But, the small trickle of water coming from the faucet tap would eventually become a larger gush of water, sometimes choking her as her immovable head rested below the faucet tap.

By Sunday night, March 28, Alpha Ross was beginning to think that all hope was lost. Time had moved everso slow since her body clumsily slid into the tub four days earlier. She would peer above the rim of the bathtub to see a digital clock sitting on her bathroom vanity. That small clock would keep her company as she watched time tick by at an agonizingly-slow pace.
“On that last day, I was ready to give up,” said Alpha. “I was doing a lot of praying, but my body was just so sore from being in the same position for five days. My body was extremely sore.”

However, a ray of hope was taking place outside Alpha’s home on Monday afternoon.  When postal carrier Michael Estes arrived at the home sometime after 2 p.m., much like he did each day on his postal route, the veteran postal service employee noticed the mail had been piling up in Alpha’s mailbox.

That wasn’t like Alpha, Estes thought to himself. After all, she’s pretty quick to retrieve her mail . . . sometimes before Michael steps off her front porch.

Estes also noticed that Alpha’s car had not been moved for several days. And, he had not heard from Alpha the previous week about any out-of-town trips to visit family members.

So, Michael Estes — being a small-town mail carrier who knows most of the habits of his postal patrons — made a telephone call to Alpha’s daughter, Denise Cox, who happened to be one of Estes’ former classmates. Denise lives between Barnsdall and Bartlesville, Okla.

When Denise received the telephone call from Estes, she immediately became worried. She asked Michael to try opening the front door. It was locked tighter than a drum.

That’s when she asked Michael to make a phone call to the Caney Police Department, hoping that they might be able to break into the home to find Alpha.

Within minutes of Estes’ initial telephone call, the Caney Police Department responded, broke into the back door, and found Alpha Ross — clinging on to life by only a prayer and a few precious drops of water from the bathtub faucet.

“From what I understand, Alpha was in pretty bad shape when the officers arrived,” said Caney police chief Rick Pell. “It appears that she had tried to climb out of that tub . . . but her arms were too weak to hold her up. The one thing that saved her life — besides Michael Estes making that telephone call — was her ability to get some water into her body. The human body, especially for older people, can’t survive long without water.”

Members of the Caney Police Department and EMTs rushed Alpha to Jane Phillips Medical Center in Bartlesville, where she was treated for dehydration. She remained in the hospital through last week before being released prior to Easter. She remains in the care of her daughter in Oklahoma.

If new life is the theme of the Easter holiday, Alpha Ross found it when the uniformed men of the Caney Police Department and the uniformed postal carrier named Michael Estes opened that closed bathroom door.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Alpha. “And, I really appreciate the concern that Michael Estes showed in figuring out that something wasn’t right. I appreciate his alertness.”

Estes is a bit bashful for taking the credit for saving Alpha’s life. However, he said he would have done the same thing for anyone else whose situation — piled up mail, unmoved vehicles — warranted a second look and a life-saving telephone call.

“When I walked onto Alpha’s porch and saw the Chronicle was still sitting in the mail box from when I delivered the mail the previous Friday, I knew it was my first clue that something wasn’t right,” said Estes. “I looked around the yard and saw that her car had not moved for several days. So, that’s when I made the telephone call to Denise to make sure her mom was okay. That started the ball rolling to getting the police to go to the house. I didn’t save Alpha’s life: the police and EMTs did. I just made the telephone call.”

That wasn’t just any ordinary telephone call; it was a call that saved a person’s life, said Caney postmaster Paul Schieferecke.

“In all my years in the postal service, Michael is the most conscientious carrier I have ever known,” said Schieferecke.

Alpha says she plans to spend a few more days in her daughter’s care. She said she will return to her Caney home once she obtains a home health-care program — a service that provides daily medical needs and attention.

What’s the first thing Alpha will do when she returns to her home?

“I look so forward to thanking Michael Estes personally when I see him,” said Ross.