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http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/911-....rticle-1.982140
911 call blossoms into friendship between NYPD officer and lonely WWII veteran
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_f...._485 /image.jpg
NYPD Officer Susan Porcello makes sure elderly Marine Gaspar Musso spends his final years loved
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Originally Published: Thursday, November 24 2011, 8:00 AM
James Monroe Adams IV for New York Daily News
NYPD Officer Susan Porcello?s life changed when she befriended WWII veteran Gaspar Musso three years ago.
She wants to thank all the people who restored her faith in humankind.
But we?re the ones who should be thanking P.O. Susan Porcello, of the 68th Precinct whose real-life story involving a lonely old WWII Marine veteran named Gaspar Musso reads like an O?Henry fable of New York.
I first reported this tale three yuletides ago.
It begins in July of 2008 when Porcello responded to a 911 ambulance call to a retired insurance broker?s one-bedroom apartment on, appropriately, Marine Ave.
?When my partner, Eddie Ennis, and I arrived, Gaspar seemed a little bit down,? Porcello says. ?He said he felt alone in the world. As I looked around his tidy apartment I noticed that he had served in the military ? the Marines to be exact.?
Porcello asked about family and friends. Musso said, ?I have no family or friends.?
Porcello said, ?Well, I?m your friend.?
Those four magical words of human kindness would forever change both their lives.
Those words made the difference between Gaspar Musso dying alone and being buried in Potter?s Field and dying loved, with the dignity he?d earned fighting in a USMC uniform in a war that saved civilization.
For Musso, the badge on Porcello?s blouse was a star plucked from an otherwise indifferent New York sky.
Musso, a diabetic, had accidentally overdosed on his meds. To Porcello he was more than another job to be cleared from the dispatch radio. She accompanied Musso to Lutheran Medical Center, making sure he received fast and caring attention.
?I told him I?d take him to a senior center to make some friends,? said Porcello, from a big, loving family in Little Italy. ?I told him I was making him my ?Grandpa,? and if he liked, he could spend Thanksgiving with my family.?
Two days later, Musso was in critical care. Porcello asked where he?d be buried if he didn?t make it. ?Potter?s Field,? said one administrator.
?No way was I gonna let a man who fought for our country be buried in Potter?s Field,? she said.
Porcello asked Missing Persons to search for relatives. No luck. Musso?s only friend had recently died. She learned Musso was born an only child on May 7, 1924, joined USMC in December 1943, and was fighting with the 2nd Marines on Tinian Island by July 1944.
Porcello became Musso?s health proxy. The old jarhead rebounded. She placed him in the best nursing home in Brooklyn, visiting several times a week, shaving him, trimming his nails, reading to him.
?I visited him on Nov. 14 and he was excited about coming to my house for Thanksgiving,? Porcello said.
The next morning she received a call saying Musso had died in his sleep.
So she reached in her police pants pocket, paying for Musso?s wake at McLaughlin Funeral Home. She recruited six 68th Precinct cops as pallbearers at St. Patrick?s Church in Bay Ridge.
Then a USMC honor guard played ?taps? over Pvt. Gaspar Musso?s flag-draped coffin as he was buried in Section 8, Plot 58, Grave 4 beside his mother in Resurrection Cemetery in Staten Island.
The story of the policewoman and the old vet went viral.
?I was shocked, humbled,? Porcello says now. ?I received over 3,000 emails. The Marine Corps League made me a lifetime honorary Marine. I was Queen of the Little Italy Merchant?s Parade. Mail from Marines in Iraq where the Daily News story hung in the mess hall. The NYPD Columbia Assoc. Award and a PBA award, The Big Apple Award. Endless awards. One old Marine sent me a packet of sand from Iwo Jima that I wear inside my bulletproof vest. Overwhelming. Amazing, because all I did was help a sweet old man the way I?d want someone to take care of my dad or grandfather. But it?s renewed my faith in people. I tried to answer every email. But to anyone I missed, on this Thanksgiving I just wanna say, ?THANKS.? ?
Duly noted.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/911-....#i xzz1epJn7cYI
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/911-....#i xzz1epJXuYLw
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/911-....rticle-1.982140
911 call blossoms into friendship between NYPD officer and lonely WWII veteran
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_f...._485 /image.jpg
NYPD Officer Susan Porcello makes sure elderly Marine Gaspar Musso spends his final years loved
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Originally Published: Thursday, November 24 2011, 8:00 AM
James Monroe Adams IV for New York Daily News
NYPD Officer Susan Porcello?s life changed when she befriended WWII veteran Gaspar Musso three years ago.
She wants to thank all the people who restored her faith in humankind.
But we?re the ones who should be thanking P.O. Susan Porcello, of the 68th Precinct whose real-life story involving a lonely old WWII Marine veteran named Gaspar Musso reads like an O?Henry fable of New York.
I first reported this tale three yuletides ago.
It begins in July of 2008 when Porcello responded to a 911 ambulance call to a retired insurance broker?s one-bedroom apartment on, appropriately, Marine Ave.
?When my partner, Eddie Ennis, and I arrived, Gaspar seemed a little bit down,? Porcello says. ?He said he felt alone in the world. As I looked around his tidy apartment I noticed that he had served in the military ? the Marines to be exact.?
Porcello asked about family and friends. Musso said, ?I have no family or friends.?
Porcello said, ?Well, I?m your friend.?
Those four magical words of human kindness would forever change both their lives.
Those words made the difference between Gaspar Musso dying alone and being buried in Potter?s Field and dying loved, with the dignity he?d earned fighting in a USMC uniform in a war that saved civilization.
For Musso, the badge on Porcello?s blouse was a star plucked from an otherwise indifferent New York sky.
Musso, a diabetic, had accidentally overdosed on his meds. To Porcello he was more than another job to be cleared from the dispatch radio. She accompanied Musso to Lutheran Medical Center, making sure he received fast and caring attention.
?I told him I?d take him to a senior center to make some friends,? said Porcello, from a big, loving family in Little Italy. ?I told him I was making him my ?Grandpa,? and if he liked, he could spend Thanksgiving with my family.?
Two days later, Musso was in critical care. Porcello asked where he?d be buried if he didn?t make it. ?Potter?s Field,? said one administrator.
?No way was I gonna let a man who fought for our country be buried in Potter?s Field,? she said.
Porcello asked Missing Persons to search for relatives. No luck. Musso?s only friend had recently died. She learned Musso was born an only child on May 7, 1924, joined USMC in December 1943, and was fighting with the 2nd Marines on Tinian Island by July 1944.
Porcello became Musso?s health proxy. The old jarhead rebounded. She placed him in the best nursing home in Brooklyn, visiting several times a week, shaving him, trimming his nails, reading to him.
?I visited him on Nov. 14 and he was excited about coming to my house for Thanksgiving,? Porcello said.
The next morning she received a call saying Musso had died in his sleep.
So she reached in her police pants pocket, paying for Musso?s wake at McLaughlin Funeral Home. She recruited six 68th Precinct cops as pallbearers at St. Patrick?s Church in Bay Ridge.
Then a USMC honor guard played ?taps? over Pvt. Gaspar Musso?s flag-draped coffin as he was buried in Section 8, Plot 58, Grave 4 beside his mother in Resurrection Cemetery in Staten Island.
The story of the policewoman and the old vet went viral.
?I was shocked, humbled,? Porcello says now. ?I received over 3,000 emails. The Marine Corps League made me a lifetime honorary Marine. I was Queen of the Little Italy Merchant?s Parade. Mail from Marines in Iraq where the Daily News story hung in the mess hall. The NYPD Columbia Assoc. Award and a PBA award, The Big Apple Award. Endless awards. One old Marine sent me a packet of sand from Iwo Jima that I wear inside my bulletproof vest. Overwhelming. Amazing, because all I did was help a sweet old man the way I?d want someone to take care of my dad or grandfather. But it?s renewed my faith in people. I tried to answer every email. But to anyone I missed, on this Thanksgiving I just wanna say, ?THANKS.? ?
Duly noted.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/911-....#i xzz1epJn7cYI
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/911-....#i xzz1epJXuYLw
