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Being a crossing guard requires a strong heart — and Shore Road resident Ted Michalski has a new one.
Michalski has been having heart problems since 2011 and in August, his heart started to fail. He was in Tufts Medical Center for an unrelated issue and his doctor told him she had a donor heart for him.
“I had a defibrillator for quite a while and one night, it went off seven times,” he says.
His wife, Martha, adds waiting for the heart was a time of great anxiety.
“Your life kind of stops,” she says. “We couldn’t go to Maine for the day because there’s only a four-hour window to get to the hospital once there’s a heart.”
Where did the heart come from?
“My donor was incarcerated,” Michalski explains, adding he’s grateful “this person did good at the end of the day.”
And in half a year, he’s allowed to find out more about the donor and meet the donor’s family.
“I’d like to do that,” he says.
Michalski retired from the Revere Police Department in 2013, and loves keeping busy. Many residents know him as the manager of The Book and Board game store in Winchester Center.
He and his wife have been married for 35 years — she’s a well-known Stop & Shop employee. She says the only real adjustment is they have to be careful about food. No eating out for three months, but “we mostly eat at home, and Ted really likes my turkey tetrazzini.”
Michalski also has to avoid salad greens and even things like melons because of possible contamination.
“If you cut open a melon, there’s still pesticide traces inside,” he says.“ And I can only eat hamburgers that taste like hockey pucks, they have to be cooked for so long.”
No driving for eight to 10 weeks, either, but he hopes to be back at Muraco directing traffic. Martha’s also a crossing guard on the corner of Washington and Mt. Vernon streets, having started in 1998.
Overall, Michalski says he is feeling quite well after the surgery.
“I feel 25 years younger,” Michalski says.
