CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- When she shifts uncomfortably in a recliner in her small living room, it's apparent just how much pain 85-year-old Essie Parrott is in.
She's wearing a sling for her broken shoulder. Her arm is also broken. She's black and blue, and taking serious pain meds just to get through the day.
These are injuries Parrott got when she left went outside Tuesday to try to figure out why the stove she uses for heat wouldn't work. "I woke up and it was cold in the house," she told Newschannel 36. "Maybe 40 degrees."
When she stepped outside, she tripped on her porch and fell. Hard. She just lay there until a neighbor heard her cries for help.
It was only after she returned from the hospital with her family that her son discovered the problem she was searching for when she fell. The gas line outside was cut and a full 200-gallon tank of heating oil attached to her home was drained, stolen. Parrott says she'd saved to buy $646 dollars worth of oil at once, despite a very limited income from social security. Her phone line was also tampered with, which is why she didn't call anyone about the broken heat.
"It’s just too painful to see her like that," her daughter Karen Gibson said. "She’s suffered so much, and really she’s a giver. She would’ve given you oil if you would have come and asked. She would’ve helped anyway she could and she didn’t deserve that."
After her story was published in the local paper, the "giver" started getting gifts. Her church paid to refill the oil tank. A neighbor brought over $50, which helped to pay for the pain medications. Workers from the gas company brought boxes full of food, as did a friend who works for the Salvation Army. Strangers have been calling, Gibson told Newschannel 36. Everyone wants to help.
"It’s just wonderful--the outpouring of the love," Gibson said.
"I ain't never been treated like this in my whole life," Parrott said. "And I'm 85 years old!"
