She made it quite clear that she did not appreciate your presence there. She certainly should have, but she did not. Her call.
Now, if she had been polite about it, I would have said to stay.
I’ve had similar experiences, by the way, trying to deal with someone so pissed off about something that they’re not willing to put up with someone trying to solve their problem. There’s not really much you can do in such a situation.
The sad thing is, such folks will probably never get the opportunity to realize that they’re the reason their life sucks so much. After she got home, she probably told everyone she knows about how terrible it all was, and how about you didn’t try to help her at all, oblivious to the fact that if she had let you, you’d have made everything much easier on her.
I think you handled it just fine. You offered her help and then called for it. Anything you provide over and above that is entirely up to you and predicated on the person in distress not heaping abuse on you for not assisting in precisely the manner she demanded. Fuck her if she can’t take a joke.
I like to think I would have stayed until the cops arrived… but then I have a low tolerance for taking abuse as well, so I might have done exactly as you did. Hard to say unless it had actually happened to me.
Either way, I can’t judge you. It sounds like she pretty much brought a half hour of stuck-arm solitude on herself.
You could have offered the use of a bucket or a coffee can or something, if she really had to tinkle that badly.
Or, if she were really abusive, go get a bottle of water and a glass and pour the water from one to the other over and over until her problem resolves itself.
What I would have done is stayed. That’s the right thing to do. Of course, I would have started talking about that hiker who got his arm trapped, and how he resolved the situation.
I would have stayed, but I would have got out a Bible and read whole chapters to her in a Fire and Brimstone type of voice. Probably from Ezekiel, maybe the Revelation. Every now and then, I would stop and do a little jig, yelling out odd sayings in a stereotyped old southern black style, then back to the stentorian Bible reading.
Or, I would’ve called 911, told her she shouldn’t be abusive to someone trying to help, and leave.
This exactly. I don’t make a judgement about kayaker’s choice, but were it me I would have called 911 and waited with her. Possibly finding a bucket or something for her to pee in. If she continued with the verbal abuse I’d certainly tell her to cut it out and pull out a book to read instead of talking to her and trying to keep her calm, but no words she said would justify in my mind leaving someone alone in such a scary situation.
If you’d been there when the police let her out, she’d have demanded that you let her in to use your bathroom. Better to have your place locked and no one available to open it.
It probably says something about me, but I keep trying to think of some way that it could have been a scam. Is your business one that people would assume had a public restroom? Did the place even look open?
I’d have stayed until I hit my limit in putting up with her shit, then left. How long that was would depend on my mood that day, but kayaker was in the ballpark.
I guess I might stay longer if I thought there was a chance of wolves or a bear happening by before the police arrived.