Flower Delivery Man Rescues Jamesport Woman

A simple flower delivery may have saved a Jamesport woman's life on Saturday.

Jeanne Scott, owner of Landscape Adventure in Riverhead, said that Howard Waldman, who is also a local firefighter and EMT, was making a delivery to a woman in Jamesport Saturday when he sensed something was amiss.

"The door was ajar, and he heard that someone was inside the house," Scott said "He heard moaning and saw an elderly woman lying on the ground."

The woman, Ann Baillet, 84, started crying when she saw Waldman, Scott said. "She said she had been lying on the floor for two days. She was disoriented."

Waldman called the Riverhead Town police and EMTs; Baillet was transferred to Peconic Bay Medical Center.

Riverhead Town police confirmed that a call came in Saturday at 9 a.m. and Baillet was transported to the hospital.

Scott said she contacted 1-800-Flowers to try and locate who had sent the flowers; she was put in touch with a florist in Florida where the order had been placed by Baillet's niece -- and her niece contacted her brother, who lives in Selden.

"It's lucky that she was getting flowers that day," Scott said. Of Waldman, she said, "He is our hometown hero."

The EMTs, Scott said, put the flowers in the ambulance with Baillet. "I'm so glad that we were able to help someone. If she hadn't gotten that one bouquet of flowers, she might still be lying on the floor."

Baillet's nephew, Lawrence Poppity, said he was on his way to visit his aunt -- but Waldman arrived before him. "It was just a lucky coincidence," he said. "I was going there for my regular visit and before I got there, someone delivered flowers from my sister in Florida. It was a lucky happenstance."

His aunt, Poppity said, had fallen or fainted, and had likely become light-headed and dehydrated. 

Waldman, he said, "is a good man. He did a good thing." Poppity said he has already called Waldman to thank him for helping his aunt, who will remain in PBMC for a few days under observance.