Forever thankful: Mini Mart clerks' concerns save a life
Feb. 19—Seventy-two-year-old Tim Drake was a regular at the Clinton Mini Mart, often buying lottery tickets.
Instead of winning cash, Drake's luck was the sharp eyes two store employees.
"He came in and asked me if he was talking funny. I was like, 'Yeah, you are.' He said his wife said he was talking a little funny," said Amy Fitzgerald, a clerk at the mart. "I thought he was just messing with us for a second, because he messes with us all the time. I thought he had just come from a dentist or something."
However, Fitzgerald and another clerk, Sierra Stricklin, noticed Drake's facial color was also "off."
"I asked if he was feeling bad and I said you might want to get checked out," Stricklin said as Drake left the mart. While concerned, the clerks did not know Drake's name.
"We were trying to figure out all the people who would know his name. After we found who he was, we found his address," Stricklin said.
"We don't know everybody's name. We just know them by what they buy," Fitzgerald said.
Clinton Reserve Officer Bryan Clover was just starting a shift on Feb. 3, when he overheard the two clerks call into the city's police department.
"I was coming on shift and I was near my dispatcher. She was on the phone and [the clerks] were giving symptoms over the phone and I overheard what the dispatcher was repeating back," Clover said.
"I thought I should respond because it did not sound good. I verified [Drake] had signs of a stroke and encouraged him to go. I guess it took me to convince him to go."
Clover said Drake's wife, Mary, then took Drake to Union Hospital in Terre Haute.
"The doctor said they might have saved my life," said Drake, who had suffered a stroke.
Mary Drake, 70, a retired Vermillion County school teacher, said her husband "had a heart stent put in last June, so he was already on some blood thinners, which helped," she said.
Grasping a cap with the words Vietnam Veteran, Drake leaned toward his wife.
"To tell the truth, I could tell the difference in my speech that day. [Mary] said maybe I ought to get checked out, but you know how a husband doesn't listen," Drake said. "But two girls at the gas station noticed my speech and that I had some slobber on my mouth."
Drake, who was born in Clinton, was 17 when he entered the U.S. Marine Corps, serving from October 1967 to November 1969, and serving just under a year in Vietnam.
He fought in the A Shau Valley, a key entry point into South Vietnam for men and material brought along the Ho Chi Minh trail by the North Vietnamese Army, and a site of heavy fighting during the war.
He was wounded in Vietnam, sustaining a gun shot wound to his head.
"The shot went through my helmet and helmet liner and went in in pieces," Drake said, adding that years later small pieces of metal was later removed from his scalp.
He returned to Clinton at age 19.
"Actually, we were engaged to get married," he said of Mary, "and when I came back from Vietnam, I messed up and fooled around," Drake said. "Then 47 1/2 years later, we got together and we will be married a year on the 27th of this month," Drake said.
Clinton Mayor Jack Gilfoy on Friday awarded Fitzgerald and Stricklin Good Samaritan awards for their concern for a fellow resident.
"These two ladies noticed something was wrong and did the appropriate thing by calling the police department, which responded immediately," Gilfoy said.
"If they didn't do that, the outcome would have been bad, as the doctors at the hospital said he wouldn't have made it," the mayor said. "It just shows that small community people know each other and watch out for each other. I am proud of them and of our police department."
Drake said he is forever grateful.
"I love you all and I really appreciate what you did," Drake told Fitzgerald and Stricklin.
The thankful man gave each clerk $100 and gave a $25 gift certificate to Officer Clover.
Howard Greninger can be reached at 812-231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com. Follow on Twitter @TribStarHoward.
