Easter flower delivery saves elderly woman’s life, thanks to concerned deliveryman

A Jamesport volunteer firefighter who has a part-time job delivering flowers for a local florist saved a woman’s life Saturday.

Ex-chief Howie Waldman, a 37-year member of the Jamesport Fire Department, was delivering flowers Saturday for Landscape Adventure when he noticed something amiss delivering flowers to a home on Herricks Lane.

The door was ajar, open about two-and-a-half feet, Waldman said in an interview Monday morning. No one came to the door when he knocked, he said.

“The protocol is, if no one answers the door, you leave the flowers in front of the door and you call the residence, just in case they didn’t hear you knock,” Waldman said. “But I had to think twice about it, because I thought I heard a noise inside,” he said.

“Making deliveries, you get to know certain noises, such as the sound of a wheelchair coming,” Waldman said.

Waldman has been delivering flowers for Landscape Adventure for many years, said business owner Jeanne Scott. “He’s been in and out of this business since 1977,” Scott said. “He helps out filling in, especially around holidays.”

“It sounded like shuffling, so I thought someone was coming to the door,” Waldman recalled. When no one appeared, he said, he stepped up to the door and looked in.

“I noticed some debris on the floor right inside the door. It looked like part of a baby seat, so I thought that was really odd,” he said. “I opened [the door] and called, ‘Hello, hello?’ and when no one answered,” he said, “I looked inside.”

“That’s when I saw this poor lady lying on her back,” Waldman said.

Waldman immediately called 9-1-1.

The woman, 84-year-old Ann Baillet, told him she’d been on the floor for two days.

“She was begging me to give her water,” he said.

As a former EMT, Waldman said, he knew he could not give her anything to drink. The woman at first seemed lucid, he said. But when he told her he’d called police and she’d be taken to the hospital, she told him she was already in the hospital.

“She was probably very dehydrated,” Waldman said.

Jamesport Fire Department first responders arrived and a Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps ambulance soon followed and transported Baillet to Peconic Bay Medical Center, he said.

“The ambulance crew was so nice, they took her flowers with her to the hospital,” Waldman said.

Baillet was admitted to the hospital and was listed in stable condition as of Monday afternoon, according to a hospital spokesperson.

Scott at Landscape Adventure called the internet flower company that had placed the order to find out who had sent Baillet the flowers. She got the name of a florist in Florida and from there was able to contact the woman’s niece, who’d sent the bouquet, to let her know she’d been sent to the hospital.

“It was very fortunate she sent those flowers,” Scott said Monday morning.

When he’s not delivering flowers, or responding to fire calls, Waldman can be found at the Jamesport Country Store, a shop he’s owned for 40 years.

“I’ve worked many jobs, and the best job I’ve ever had in my life is delivering flowers to people,” Waldman said. “People get a smile when you bring them flowers, especially shut-ins. It really makes them happy. What a wonderful thing it is,” he said.

“She was very lucky someone like Howie was delivering those flowers, and not someone who would have just left them and taken off,” Scott said. “Howie is a hometown hero.” 

But Waldman brushed that notion off with a chuckle. “Nah, it wasn’t heroism,” the ex-chief said. “As a seasoned fireman for many years, I’ve seen a lot of things. It was a very emotional thing seeing that woman lying there,” he said.

“Howie is always looking out for someone,” Jamesport Fire Chief Duffy Griffiths said Monday morning. “That’s just the kind of guy he is.”

RiverheadLOCAL photo by Peter Blasl