You had me at “...80 years old and has a nine-year-old son.”

It sounds like he did the most important thing right: staying put. That’s easy to say you’ll do, but when you’re in the middle of being lost, not sure if anyone is coming, and panic is telling to you to “do something, anything,” it’s hard to fight off the urge to keep moving.

A better outcome than anyone would have suspected; kudos to him.