Wednesday, January 16th, 2013
Carrier delivers aid to customer
Celina girl to the rescue
By Amy Kronenberger
Photo by Amy Kronenberger/The Daily Standard
Mary Dixon, left, accepts The Daily Standard from carrier Emma Keeling, who helped rescue Dixon from a fall last week at her home.
CELINA - A Daily Standard delivery girl went above and beyond the call of duty to help an 81-year-old woman who had fallen in her home.
Emma Keeling, 12, on Friday was delivering papers along her usual route on Kensington Lane, Celina, when she found Mary Dixon lying on the floor of her home.
Dixon said she had fallen while opening her door to look for the paper. She wasn't badly injured but couldn't get back up on her own. She was lying on the floor for about an hour before Keeling arrived.
"I don't know how it happened," Dixon said of her fall. "I must have blacked out or something, but I remember falling because that hurt."
Keeling, the daughter of Tracy and Dan Keeling, found Dixon while putting the paper inside the screen door.
"A neighbor asked her a long time ago to put the paper in the door," Dixon said. "I'm pretty homebound, and by golly, she did. She's a sweet girl; I wouldn't be able to get the paper if she didn't."
Dixon remembers Keeling opening the door.
"I think I kind of scared her ... she turned kind of white," Dixon said.
Keeling said she was scared at first, but when Dixon told her she was OK and asked her to call the police, her fears subsided.
"I normally would get nervous, but not this time," said the two-year newspaper carrier. "I just called the police and stayed with her ... I've never had to handle anything like this before."
Dixon said she was happy; the fall could have been much worse.
"I was so thankful I wasn't seriously injured," she said. "I am so terrified of falling because I know what it could do to me ... a break would have finished me."
After calling the police, Dixon told Keeling she could leave. However, Keeling insisted on staying with Dixon until help arrived.
"She was my angel; I don't know what I would have done without her," Dixon said. "She said she would stay with me until they got here. I told her no, but she said she would stay ... It makes you feel so good when someone is willing to do that.
"You hear so much bad things about kids these days," she added. "It's so nice when one of them does good. They should be recognized for it."
