Estimated duration: 3-4 minutes
DRAPER — This week’s historic snow has dug up much of Utah, meaning one Draper neighborhood will do whatever it takes to help a woman stranded at home when the storm hits its hardest. Did.
All you need is a glance. That was enough for Janie Gillette.
“It’s beautiful. I mean, look at this,” she said, looking at Lone Peak and Mount Timpanogos. “Everyone who lives here must live here because there are mountains.”
These views prompted her to move to Draper’s Suncrest neighborhood. So does her neighbor Cheryl Helt.
“A moose was walking here. It’s beautiful,” said Heldt.
But after this week’s heavy snowfall, they both realized that it was the people and community that kept them here.
“That’s the first thing I thought of when we were going through this,” Heldt said.
Helt noticed something was wrong earlier this week. She felt sick and her family could not understand what it was.
“At that time, my daughter took my blood sugar and it was almost 500,” said Helt. That number is dangerously high. They called the emergency room and were told to come, but that was when a snowstorm hit hard earlier this week.
SunCrest is at an elevation of about 6,000 feet, so it actually landed in their neighborhood. The snowplow had not yet made its way down the road, and the road was covered with snow and was getting worse by the minute.
“We tried, but we got nowhere. Everywhere was four feet deep,” said Heldt. “I was scared when I got stuck on the road. Something came up to me and texted me there.”
Gillette got that text. She was a doctor’s assistant and saw her neighbor get sick, so she quickly got into her work mode. She posted a message on one of her Facebook pages in her neighborhood, called, and sent a few texts.
“I knew this was a medical emergency, so I sent a message and asked, ‘Does anyone have insulin?’ There was,” said Gillette.
Hert had not been diagnosed with diabetes, so he did not have insulin. But Gillette knew.
They called the Draper Fire Department, but road conditions prevented the crew from reaching her home immediately. A snowplow was stuck at the bottom of a mountain trying to get up.
Finally, someone in the neighborhood responded to her message, saying they had insulin but needed to get to her by snowmobile. Another neighbor said she had a snowmobile and she all worked together to help.
“Everybody was in it. It was great,” said Heldt.
The doctor diagnosed me with diabetes the next day, but I’m back to normal now.
Helt said he had a close call, but he knows better than ever that the scenery is great and the neighbors are even better.
