On his way home from Long Beach

Only Jimmie Lee Mock knows what happened between the time he got off a bus in Manhattan and his arrival in Long Beach nearly five days and 30-plus miles later.

The 75-year-old man from Alabama was found by Long Beach residents Kim Feldman and Laura Phillips on May 16 as he sat slumped against the wall of a West End business. Feldman was coming home from a walk on the boardwalk in support of breast cancer research when she found Mock, who, oddly, was well dressed but covered in dirt.

While Feldman is used to finding the occasional young adult sleeping off a night of drinking on the sidewalk, she said that finding a senior citizen seemed unusual. When she mentioned it to Phillips, her neighbor and friend, Phillips "took off right down the block," said Feldman, adding that she was disturbed by how many people stepped over Mock or otherwise ignored him. "I was shocked that no one stopped," she said.

Phillips asked Mock if he had had too much to drink the night before, but he replied, "No, ma'am, I've never had a drop of alcohol in my life." Phillips was struck by his heavy Southern drawl.

She sat down beside him and Mock began to tell her his story.

As Phillips understood it, Mock, who she believes suffers from a form of dementia, had boarded a bus from Birmingham, Ala., to Springfield, Mass., but never connected with the people he set out to meet. She ascertained that he had ended up in Saratoga, since he had a bus ticket from Saratoga to Alabama, via stops in Manhattan, West Virginia and Georgia, that was dated May 10.

She believes Mock boarded the wrong bus at the Port Authority in Manhattan and was subsequently kicked off. According to Mock, he started walking, and walked for five days until he was found in Long Beach. "'I don't know what happened — I've just been walking.' That's what he kept saying," Phillips said.

During that time, no one asked if he needed help, and a local pizzeria turned him away when he was short 25 cents for a slice of pizza, he told Phillips.

With Feldman's help, they brought Mock to Phillips's Oregon Street home, where she gave him pancakes, bacon and orange juice before they called the Long Beach Police Department, which sent over an ambulance.

While Mock was being treated at Long Beach Medical Center, social worker Brenda Kornblatt and Phillips worked frantically to locate his family. Mock had his driver's license and could recall the name and phone number of one of his 25 siblings still in Alabama.

Due to privacy laws, Kornblatt could not discuss Mock's case, but she said that an elderly person with dementia is found wandering in town and treated at the hospital almost monthly. "A lot of times, because Long Beach is at the end of the Long Island Rail Road line, people end up at the train station," she said, remembering a man she treated who took the train from Manhattan and got off at Long Beach.

Recently, Kornblatt said, a woman from Syracuse began driving to her local McDonalds and made the entire trip down state before finally getting into an accident on Park Avenue.

Phillips visited Mock at the hospital every day, often bringing him candy bars, as well as a duffel bag filled with clean clothes donated by her husband, Bill. She called Mock a "real Southern gentleman" who never asked for anything and always showed his appreciation. She speculated that his proper upbringing kept him from asking for help.

She arranged to put Mock on a bus back to Birmingham, and when he was released from the hospital on May 21, Phillips packed a suitcase and filled it with clean clothing, some food and money. She included a note with Mock's personal information and where he was headed and urged him to give it to someone if he became confused.

Bill Phillips escorted Mock to the Port Authority, and saw to it that he would be cared for by another passenger headed for Virginia, which was his first stop. As the Herald went to press on Wednesday, Laura Phillips hadn't heard from Mock, and she said she hopes he makes it home safely.

Phillips, whom friends call Mother Theresa because of her willingness to help anyone in need, called her encounter with Mock an amazing experience. "There's no way I could have let it go," she said of the situation, adding that she felt a force telling her she had to help. "There was no choice."

Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.