Clear the space and call 911, now.”

Maya had taken advanced adult and pediatric first-aid courses for her old job as an elementary teacher.

She loosened my mother’s collar, checked her airway, and kept her on her side until the paramedics came.

The woman my mother had left bleeding and starving on a cold kitchen floor had just saved her life.

At the hospital, the neurologist confirmed a severe ischemic stroke brought on by a hypertensive crisis.

Maya’s speed had saved her, but the stroke left Eleanor with partial paralysis on her left side and significant speech impairment.