Missing woman found deceased

Francesca Franzese of Richmond Hill, the 81-year-old woman reported missing in last week’s Courier, was found dead more than a week after she was last seen.
Son Frank, 38, told The Queens Courier that his mom, who lived with his 75-year-old father and 40-year-old brother, was traveling to Ridgewood by bus to the offices of a non-profit organization that was closed due to the holiday.
“She had been there before,” Frank said. “She got on the bus alone and may have transferred.”
“I got a call a few hours later from my dad saying, ‘Your mother has gone missing,’” he continued.
Worried, the family traveled to Francesca’s intended destination, where they hung flyers and talked to neighbors and local business owners, but no one could tell them where she had gone.
On Tuesday, February 26, Frank went down to Fresh Pond Road and talked to commuters, one of whom told him that she saw his mom on the bus, mumbling something like, “I’m lost.”
Frank, who said his mom emigrated to the U.S. from Naples, Italy in the late 1960s, also said that in the past six months to a year her mental deterioration had been getting worse.
“It’s a scary situation,” he said candidly.
Jed Levine of the Alzheimer’s Association, New York City Chapter agrees.
“It is difficult for loved one . . . and sad for families,” he said. “But families don’t have to do it alone.”
Levine explained that there is help.
For example, the MedicAlert + Alzheimer’s Association Safe Return Program, developed by Levine in 1990, helps identify people at risk of wandering. If they are found, they can be identified and a family member will be called.
Levine explained that the Alzheimer’s patient can wear either a bracelet or a necklace and can also carry a wallet card.
There are also items to identify caregivers in case of emergency.
The Alzheimer’s Association, New York City Chapter offers financial planning, has social workers, and has done Latino and African-American outreach in the borough, among other things.
Monthly meetings are held at the Samuel Field Y.
Last year the organization received funding from the City Council, but Levine said it did not get as much this year.
For more information, call the toll-free number at 800-272-3900 or visit www.alznyc.org.
In the case of Franzese, the association cast a net as far as Florida, according to her son, for which the family, he said, was extremely grateful.