Transcript
Narrator:
In East Harlem, a quiet hero walks the halls.
Patron of Beth Hark Christian Counseling Center:
That’s a veteran right there.
Narrator:
His mission isn’t over. It’s just taken a new form.
Darryl:
I’m like the mailman. I’ll be here.
Narrator:
This is Darryl.
Twice a week, the retired Navy veteran crosses the street to Beth Hark Christian Counseling Center.
He picks up 33 hot meals, loads them into shopping carts, and makes his way home.
Darryl:
Thank you.
Narrator:
Home is a special building for veterans, and this is where his new mission begins. Door by door.
Darryl:
Yeah. Hey, let me in. Where you at?
Narrator:
Floor by floor.
Darryl:
Oh, it’s been days with no elevator now.
Narrator:
Darryl makes his rounds.
Lunch time.
Narrator:
Some of his neighbors can’t walk. Some live with injuries.
John, Navy Veteran:
We’re all hurt and broke up not physically yet. We just try to survive now.
Narrator:
Others silently shoulder the weight of being alone.
John, Navy Veteran:
I lost a lot of friends along the way.
Narrator:
But when Darryl shows up, every hallway fills with something else: gratitude.
John, Navy Veteran:
This this freaking guy. He just I, I gotta go.
Narrator:
The Navy wasn’t his first call to service. It was his mother.
Darryl:
We were lucky that my mom, she was the lady that she was.
Every Friday night, she would have us making bologna and cheese sandwiches. And on Saturday morning we would take them down to Penn Station and give them out. You know, we wasn’t better than nobody, but we were better off than a lot of people.
Narrator:
Decades later, Darryl still carries his time in the Navy close to heart, a chapter that he says changed everything.
Darryl:
Joining the military was probably the best thing I could have done.
You know what I mean? I know it saved my life. It got me out of harm’s way for one thing.
You know, you’re out to see, you know, you stand a lot of watches, you know, all alone up in the thing and all of this you and the moon, you know, and the ship is going.
Darryl:
I was keeping the country safe, you could say.
You know, just doing my little baby part.
Narrator:
From serving his country to now his community, Darryl is still doing his part.
Darryl:
I’ll go until I can’t go no more.
Narrator:
And he has no plans on stopping his new mission, making sure no veteran in his building is ever forgotten.
