Councilman comes to rescue of snowed in couple

WILMINGTON (WPVI) -- For most, the blizzard meant a day off, but one city leader went above the call of duty when a Wilmington resident was snowed in and facing a life or death situation.

Sheila Cratic was desperate to get her husband to his weekly dialysis appointment, after being snowed in for days.

She tells Action News she called almost every agency in the city, but remained trapped by unplowed streets.

"I was just determined somebody is going to help my husband today," Sheila said.

Sheila was very determined, even if that meant she had to wake a neighbor at 5 a.m. to transport her diabetic husband, Joseph, to his weekly dialysis appointment.

He survived a stroke in 2011 and has been waiting for a kidney.

Her snow-choked street at Jefferson near 22nd hadn't seen a plow, meaning for a second day in a row, the DART bus couldn't get to Joseph.

The couple grew desperate, even after Sheila called the city, EMS and the National Guard.

"I was telling my wife, 'I'm OK.' I was about to go back in and lay down and just take my chances," Joseph told Action News Tuesday.

But Sheila was not giving up and that's when neighbor and councilman Theo Gregory came into the picture.

"I looked up at Theo Gregory's window and saw a light up there. I thought, 'It's five in the morning, I can't wake him up.."

But out of desperation, Shelia says, and because it had been two days since her husband had treatment, she got the councilman's attention.

Soon after, Theo lifted Joseph into his truck and got him to treatment,

Sheila posted a photo of the two of them on Facebook.

"That's what you're supposed to do as a human being, as a person; it's no real inconvenience to me," Theo said.

However, Sheila still says cars are getting stuck in her neighborhood.

She thinks, though, the DART bus will try to attempt to come through.

"If they don't, I'm just going to take my chances again and drive him myself," Shelia said.