As N.J. State Troopers are on heightened alert to spot cell-phone chatting scofflaws behind the wheel, it’s difficult to comprehend what happened to Melvin W. Williams Sr., the venerable octogenarian from Whitesboro, earlier this month on Route 55.
Williams, who will be 84 on April 6, had absolutely no use for a cellular telephone until about noon on March 9. Behind the wheel of his stately vehicle, Williams, widely known for his activist spirit to make life better for Whitesboro residents, said something happened to his steering wheel. He was traveling to visit his daughter, who lives in Clayton, and was only about 10 minutes away from her front door.
Because of the erratic movement of his car after that mechanical malfunction on that heavily traveled high-speed roadway, Williams, a religious man, thought he was “Going home to Jesus, not to see my daughter.”
He pulled over to the shoulder, sure that help would soon arrive.
“I waited three hours on the shoulder of that road,” Williams said.
No state troopers stopped to investigate the stopped car. Regardless, Williams did not lose faith. He was a bit disheartened, since no one offered help.
He felt akin to the traveler in the Biblical story that was beaten by thieves and left for dead until a Good Samaritan came along and rendered aid.
No one rendered anything to Williams.
“Everybody passing by had a cell phone up to their ear,” he observed.
There sat Williams. He waited and waited. Minutes turned into hours, hours mounted.
No help came his way. Not one curious motorist slowed to see if he needed aid. He could well have passed to that heavenly home, and no one would have known, it seems.
Finally, Williams decided heavenly intervention was his only hope.
“So I prayed to God, and said ‘I’m either going to drive to my daughter’s house, and if I don’t make it, I’ll go home to see Jesus,” said Williams in a matter-of-fact voice.
“I made a covenant with God, I said I will move at 3 o’clock, if I get killed, I will come home to you.
“I guess it wasn’t my time yet; He didn’t want me just then. I made it to my daughter’s house,” said Williams.
In Clayton, he parked his old reliable means of transportation in a parking lot.
Although a friend offered to drive his vehicle home to Whitesboro, Williams declined that offer, and opted to have a local tow company travel to Clayton and fetch his car.
That roadside episode was an epiphany for the man who unsuccessfully lobbied Middle Township Committee for sidewalks along West Main Street in his hometown.
Without a doubt, Williams plans to get an easy-to-use, senior-friendly cellular telephone next month. It will likely be one with big buttons and a large viewing screen and few, if any, “bells and whistles.”
For others in Williams’ age bracket, who have lived well without the benefit of a cell phone for maybe 80 years, there are several on the market. A commonly advertised model is a Jitterbug, which claims to be hearing-aid compatible, has large buttons and even a simple oone-touch 9-1-1 button.
Verizon Wireless also features a Coupe which also features a 9-1-1 simple call button and three programmable I.C.E. (In Case of Emergency) buttons that will, with the push of one button, call whomever has that number.
Had Mr. Melvin had one of those phones on March 9, I wouldn’t be writing about him here and now. He could have summoned help expeditiously.
Williams doesn’t plan to use that new phone to send text messages to his family, nor does he plan to snap photos of his Raleigh Avenue home and send them to some distant viewer.
“I’m just going to use it for emergencies,” said Williams.
Williams has called Cape May County home since 1964. That was after the ferry that linked the Norfolk to Hampton was replaced by a bridge, and employment ended there for him.
He will proudly tell anyone he was raised on a farm on the Eastern Shore in Northampton County. The work ethic, instilled early, drives Williams to this day.
In all his years, Williams never though he would ever see the day when he would need a cellular telephone, until that fateful Sunday. The three-hour wait for help that didn’t arrive coupled with the realization that, if some serious physical malady had visited him, he would have had no way to summon aid convinced “Mr. Melvin” to buy a cell phone.
When he gets one, and masters its use, a challenge for anyone half his years, I’ll bet Mr. Melvin will have it attached to his belt.
Chances are good, too, that he won’t be leaving for his daughter’s house in Clayton without that phone by his side.
For all the citations that were issued by State Police on March 9 for cell phone-using drivers, wouldn’t you think some trooper could have taken five minutes out to check that car stopped on the shoulder of Route 55?
Maybe the trooper(s) patrolling the highway that date couldn’t believe there would still be one driver who would take to the state’s roadways without a cell phone to summon aid.
Williams’ episode is but one more reason never to assume anything about anyone young or old.