In a parking lot, she stopped to help out a stranger in need

Missy Whalen stepped outside of the auto parts store where she has worked for the past year shortly before 9 on Saturday night. She lit up her cigarette, then watched the sheets of rain careen off the awning.

A little while earlier and a short distance to the east, a horse named Commentator stood in the winner's circle at the Saratoga Race Course on a day that produced a handle of more than $25 million. A short distance to the west, the curtain was rising at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center to reveal a stage filled with dancers.

Missy was finishing her work break when she was approached by a small group of people.

"Two guys and a girl walked up to me and they had another guy with them inside of a shopping cart. One of them said, 'I need for you guys to do me a favor. My friend is dead. Can you call 911?' "

When the emergency call was made, the voice on the other end of the line asked if the man's condition could be verified.

"He had a pulse, but it was very weak, so I started giving him CPR and mouth-to-mouth," said Missy, who ignored the heavy smell of alcohol coming from the man in the cart and began performing life-saving techniques.

It is something she learned as part of a requirement in foster parent training, which is something she aspires to be, she said, "because everybody needs a chance, no matter who they are."

Missy said she recognized some of the faces of those who accompanied the man as the homeless people who live year-round along the vacant stretch of concrete and the adjoining fields of tall weeds nearby. It is an unspectacular landscape, noticeable only by rows of trash receptacles and frayed sheets of plastic atop splintered pallets of wood.

"I knew no one else was going to help him, so I took the initiative," said Missy, who is 26 years old, and estimated the man's age as being somewhere in his 50s or 60s.

Paramedics arrived and transported the man to the hospital. Missy returned to work inside the auto parts store.

Seven years ago, the man spoke to a reporter from this newspaper and confessed that he first began drinking and taking drugs at the age of 13, was first arrested at the age of 16, and had attempted to commit suicide and failed. He was homeless then also, but after turning himself into a local mental health clinic, he was trying to turn his life around.

"Everything is worth living for now," he said at the time.

He hoped to attend a vocational school and to learn a trade, like auto repair, he said.

On Thursday afternoon, Missy was back inside of the auto repair store where she works. An associate told her they thought they had seen the man a few days ago. Missy was relieved that the man whose name she did not know had survived.

Police said the man's father informed them on Saturday night that his son was transported to the hospital and died in the emergency room. He was 49 years old.

When the unfortunate news was relayed to Missy, she paused in silence. She took a deep breath. She expressed her gratitude for the call, then she hung up the phone.

By Saratoga Bureau writer Thomas Dimopoulos
Published in The Post-Star, Friday, August 1, 2008.