Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month: Crisis Intervention Specialist Caryl Blount on BART, family, and food

CIS Caryl Blount pictured at Lake Merritt Station.

Last April, Crisis Intervention Specialist (CIS) Caryl Blount was finishing up her shift at Millbrae Station when she and her partner, CIS Dinah Amoah-Wynn, came across an elderly woman on the platform. It was a cold night, and the station was closing. The woman sat alone on the platform with her bags.

Blount and Wynn walked up to the woman to let her know the station was closing and she needed to leave. The woman replied: "I have nowhere to go."

After talking to her, Blount and Wynn learned her name was Juanita and that she'd come to the U.S. from the Philippines a week earlier. She was only supposed to be in San Francisco for a few days, but she had missed her return flight. It appeared she'd been sleeping at the airport and riding BART back and forth between Millbrae and SFO Station.

Blount and Wynn asked Juanita for phone numbers of people they could call for her, but she couldn't remember any. They realized she was likely suffering from dementia.

"She gave us puzzle pieces, and we had to put the story together from there," said Blount.

Juanita carried a notebook that contained drawings, recipes, scribbles, and fortunately, scattered phone numbers. So Blount and Wynn began dialing the numbers at random. One person picked up - it was a woman in New York named Elizabeth. Juanita, about 45 years prior, had been her nanny.

It was the early morning in New York, and after the phone call from the CIS team, Elizabeth sprang into action and bought her former nanny a ticket back to Manila. She would arrange things with Juanita's sister to make sure she was transported safely from the plane back home.

Blount and Wynn then brought Juanita back to the airport and connected her with staff there, as well as the morning CIS team, who went to check on her the next day. Everyone wanted to make sure she got on that plane.

A day or so later, Blount received a text from Elizabeth: "Juanita arrived safely in Manila!" She thanked the CISes for their work in getting Juanita home.

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