Savoy Shuffle

What situation caused these fancy hotel slippers (from the Savoy in London's West End) to end up here? Grubby, worn and in disarray at the bus stop at 19th and Jefferson? They speak of sadness, confusion, pain. The bus lines that pass here, No.'s 3 and 4, go directly to Harborview Hospital, about 12 blocks to the west. Why did this person need to go to the hospital in such a hurry that they couldn't put on shoes? Did they arrive with barefeet, in a nightgown? Why did this person not have at least a concerned friend to give them a lift? Was it a medical emergency? Or a loved one already embedded in the house of the poorly? I weighed the gravity of these possibilities for a minute, then my bus arrived.