GREENPORT, NY — He always rode an electric bike and wore a blue jacket. Those are the memories Sharon Sailor of Greenport has, of the man who crossed her path daily.
They weren’t friends, not really. But they’d smile, and wave hello, their interactions part of the rich fabric that weaves a tight-knit community close.
Sailor told Patch that she’d seen a large number of emergency response vehicles in the Adams Street parking lot Wednesday night, with EMTs working furiously to save someone’s life.
It wasn’t until Thursday morning that she learned the man she’d seen so often during her daily routine in the village, had died.
Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley confirmed that authorities were called to an aided case at the location and CPR was administered, but the man was pronounced dead at Eastern Long Island Hospital.
Sailor, who owns Front Street Station on Front Street, turned to social media Thursday to say a sad good-bye — making sure that a man’s life, and death, would not go unnoticed.
“Just wanted to send a RIP to a local gentleman who passed yesterday,” she wrote. “We were not friends and only knew each other by sight, and exchanged friendly waves every day when I came into work.”
Sailor remembered the blue camouflage jacket, the bicycle.
“He wasn’t a mover and shaker, he didn’t have anything to do with town policy or politics,” she said. “He just seemed to be a guy that was maybe down on his luck.”
She’ll always remember those last few moments of his life, in a parking lot, she said.
“I saw the scene when I was leaving work ,and I must say, the police department and fire department were valiantly and diligently working on him.”
She doesn’t know if he has any family nearby, or even how long he’d lived in Greenport.
“But I do know that he was a person who lived amongst us in the community, another human being, and someone we should mourn — someone whose passing we should acknowledge. Wishing him peace and godspeed to his afterlife,” she said.
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