Vidalia — Carolyn Kiser owes her life to Addie Hooper.

In Oct. 2011, a call Kiser made to Hooper was one that ended up going above and beyond her duties with the Vidalia Police Department officer TRIAD officer, a program that aims to monitor and care for elderly residents in the community.

“I wasn’t feeling right, my head was spinning and I just didn’t know what was wrong with me,” Kiser said. “I called Addie and told her that I was going upstairs to get in bed, but that I was going to leave the front door unlocked for her.

“I went upstairs, got in bed and that’s the last thing I remember.”

A blood clot had formed in Kiser’s brain, and she later found out Hooper and another VPD officer arrived at the house to find her unresponsive.

They rushed Kiser to Natchez Regional Medical Center, where she was airlifted to a Baton Rouge hospital and surgeons operated to remove the clot.

Kiser awoke in the hospital following surgery. Her daughter filled her in on the series of events that had led up to her surgery.

Kiser thought of the many people who she could have left behind and one person she knew she had to thank.

“If it wasn’t for Addie, I wouldn’t be here today,” Kiser said, wiping away tears. “I’m lucky to be alive, because if Addie hadn’t come to check on me, I would have died.”

The VPD employee, 50, died Sunday at University Medical Center in Jackson following a battle with illness.

The stories of Hooper’s kindness and compassion can be heard throughout Concordia Parish and especially at the Vidalia Police Department, where she was a loyal coworker and friend to many employees.

“She was like a second mom to me,” records clerk Tassika Morales said. “She kept me in line, always had a smile on her face and would make sure to give encouraging words to everyone in the office.

“No matter what type of day you were having, when Mrs. Addie came around, her presence and her attitude changed everything.”

Hooper was born July 21, 1963, in Natchez to Josephine J. Hawkins and Earl Johnson. She was educated at Copiah-Lincoln Community College and Louisiana State University-Alexandria, where she earned an associate’s degree in child care.

She joined the VPD shortly after Chief Arthur Lewis took office and was instrumental in creating the TRIAD Program in Vidalia.

No better person matched the qualities and traits Lewis was hoping for to look over the elderly residents of Vidalia, the chief said.

“She was the heart of the program,” Lewis said. “She had this humanly compassion that allowed her to get along with everybody, and that fell right into what she did with the elderly people of this community.

“They accepted her right off the bat, and she’s the main reason the program took off as quick as it did.”

But Hooper’s compassion wasn’t limited to elderly residents.

“Even when I was upset or things weren’t going my way, she would come up to me and just say, ‘What’s wrong with you? There’s no reason you shouldn’t be smiling today,’” Lewis recalled. “In our lifetime, we’re going to meet special people, and Mrs. Addie was certainly one of those people.

“She left a great legacy here, and I’m going to miss her.”

The legacy she left behind is one Georganna Berry, who took over the TRIAD Program when Hooper took a leave of absence because of her illness, sees every day.

“When I first started and was going around meeting all the people, everyone just kept asking where Addie was,” Berry said. “It scared me, because I didn’t know how I could measure up to the big shoes she left behind to fill.”

Berry soon learned the work Hooper had done in the community wasn’t something to be scared of but something she should embrace and build upon.

“She didn’t let anyone say, ‘No,’ to her or let them tell her they didn’t need her assistance, and that’s really how the program took off,” Berry said. “I learned so much from her, and it’s just hard to believe she’s gone.”

Services for Hooper will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Harvest Baptist Church with the Rev. Troy Thomas officiating.

Visitation will be from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. today at the funeral home with a “celebration of life” wake service at 6 p.m. Visitation will also be from 10 a.m. until service time Monday at the church.