Ottawa paramedics are crediting a Good Samaritan for coming to the aid of an elderly woman outside in the cold this morning.

The 85-year-old was wearing only socks and her pajamas when Penny Tasco came to the rescue.

A hug, a coat and a warm spot by her fireplace.

That's what Tasco offered a complete stranger she noticed outside her window this morning; a chance meeting that may have saved the elderly woman's life.

Tasco isn't comfortable with all the attention she's getting after that encounter outside her Uplands Drive townhouse early this morning.

“It’s a good thing to be recognized,” she says, “but the way I look at it is this is just a natural thing.”

It was 6:15 a.m. with a frostbite advisory in effect and Penny was just about to hop in the shower when she decided to look out her window.

“And lo and behold there was a lady there with just her nightie on,” she says.

Her nightie, a pink housecoat and her socks and that's it. 

“At that point, my reaction was just to run out and grab her and bring her inside,” Tasco explains, “like I said, to give her comfort and keep her warm. I would want to be treated the same way if that was anyone in my family.”

Those quick actions prompted high praise from Ottawa paramedics this morning, tweeting out how amazing it was to see citizens helping strangers in distress.

“If she had wandered off into the nearby park,” says Marc-Antoine Deschamps with the Ottawa Paramedic Services, “and hadn't been seen in several hours, she could have died because of the cold; or she could have developed a more serious case of frostbite.”

As it is, she suffered minor frostbite and mild hypothermia and is in stable condition in hospital.

This isn’t' the first time this has happened.  Paramedics say that almost every year, someone is found wandering, dressed improperly for the weather.  Usually they’re found in time, most often by another Good Samaritan.

It's believed the 85-year-old lived in a building a good hike through the park to Uplands Drive and Penny Tasco's house.  Penny says she just happens to have been in the right place at the right time.

“He puts us all in places to help others,” Tasco says, “and hopefully everybody else would do the same.”

The woman who Tasco believes was Polish couldn't speak much English, beyond saying thank you.