Missing Woman Found : A Room at the Inn--2 Hearts Are Touched

A warm friendship has developed between a mentally retarded woman, who speaks no English, and the woman hotel manager who took her in for two days last week when she was lost.

“She’s a beautiful person,” Barbara Turner, manager of the Islander Motel, said Sunday of new friend Maria Galicia. “I still can’t believe this happened.”

Galicia, 42, who speaks only Spanish, wandered away from a care home last Wednesday and was missing for two days while police in this Bay Area city looked for her.

She turned up safe and happy Friday, when Turner called police after reading news reports about the missing woman.

Seeks Shelter

Turner, 43, said the woman showed up at the Islander Motel, three-quarters of a mile from the care home, and asked if she could have a room for a dollar. Seeing that the woman did not have a sweater or coat and assuming she was poor and homeless, Turner agreed to put her up for the night, she said.

On Thursday morning, when she told Galicia she would have to vacate the room, the woman began crying and offered to pay her with a bag of pennies she had with her. Turner, who speaks only a few words of Spanish, said she let her stay another night in a small room adjacent to her office, giving her food and hot chocolate.

She said she had planned to call the Salvation Army to help Galicia before the news reports.

“She was really innocent,” Turner said. “She’s someone you couldn’t look at and say, ‘You have to leave.’ She’s the kind of person you want to take in as your own.”

Happy Reunion

When Galicia’s relatives arrived on Friday to pick her up, there were hugs and tears all around, and Turner asked to have a picture of the woman sent to her.

“They promised to bring her back to see me at Christmas, and they’d better,” Turner said with a laugh.

She said the story of the unlikely friendship touches those who hear about it.

“I kind of hope this will wake up some people about helping out others,” she said. “There’s too many people who don’t care enough about other people.”