Bath Beach woman hoping for reunion with heroines who helped her

Mary Arndt is looking for two special women who unselfishly came to her aid at a time when she really needed a helping hand.

Arndt, a 71-year-old Bath Beach resident, suffered a bad fall on the sidewalk while walking home from a 13th Avenue salon in Dyker Heights earlier this month and was rescued by two women who got her up on her feet and waited patiently with her until her husband, Bob came to pick her up and drive her home.

“I didn’t ask for their names. I was in so much pain. But I would love to see them again to thank them in person, maybe send a fruit basket,” Mary Arndt told this newspaper on Wednesday.

Her family posted fliers around Bath Beach and Dyker Heights with her picture, a description of the accident and her contact information in the hope that the Good Samaritans would see it and contact her.

John Quaglione, deputy press secretary for the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, spotted one of the fliers on a Dyker Heights street and posted a picture of it on Facebook, along with a request to help find the two women.

Arndt, who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, said she’s deeply grateful for the assistance the two strangers gave her. “I think if I lived in any neighborhood other than this one, I would have been left there lying on the ground. But this neighborhood is special,” she said.

Arndt is recuperating at home following surgery. “I ripped up my whole shoulder and had to get an operation,” she said.

Her ordeal began at around 5 p.m. on March 8. She had gone to a salon to get hair done and had decided to walk home rather than call her husband to pick her up. “It was a beautiful day,” she recalled.

She was walking on 13th Avenue and 84th Street when she tripped over a raised sidewalk and fell. “I couldn’t catch my balance and I went down,” she said.

She knew that she had badly injured her shoulder. “I didn’t know how bad the damage was but I knew how much pain I was in. I couldn’t get up,” she said.

Arndt got herself to a seated position and sat on the ground. Two women approached her. “They stayed with me for 10 or 15 minutes. They helped me get my bag together so I could call my husband,” she said.

The women appeared to be in their 40s or 50’s, according to Arndt, who said one of the females had dark hair. The other woman had light hair.

Arndt’s husband arrived a few minutes later. “The women walked me to the car and helped me get in,” Mary Arndt said.

The Arndts went to the emergency room at NYU Langone Hospital – Brooklyn, where Mary was admitted and underwent an operation to fix her shoulder. She was released from the hospital two days later. “My arm is in a sling,” she said.

But her thoughts have often turned to the two Good Samaritans who helped her on the sidewalk that day. “I would love to see them again,” she told this newspaper.

Arndt asked that anyone with information call her at 646-982-4195.

Update (March 21 at 11:27 a.m.): The headline of this story has been updated to omit the word “elderly.”

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