The other Friday afternoon it was pouring with rain and I was on my way home. I happened to glance down a side street and saw an elderly woman on her hands and knees on the pavement (what Americans would call the 'sidewalk'). I went to help her but couldn't manage to get her to her feet - eventually a young woman came and helped me. It soon became apparent that the elderly woman was very drunk and she informed me that she was "an alcoholic". I asked her what I could do for her and she said that she wanted a taxi home. I didn't have my phone with me and I discovered that public phoneboxes don't contain directories these days. Luckily a local mini-cab turned up at this point. You are not supposed to flag these down, like you can a black cab, but the driver agreed to take the woman home if I accompanied her. So, we got her home and I paid the fare (which wasn't very much).
The next day I was on a bus coming back from the City Centre and noticed the same elderly woman curled up in a foetal position on the seat in a bus stop.
What haunts me is the thought that my 'Good Samaritan' act was somewhat futile. This person is, for whatever reason, hell-bent on a path of self-destruction - and all I did was slow her down a bit. Still, I suppose that you can't leave someone on the pavement in the rain.