ABOVE AND BEYOND

Boston officer gives family stranded after brain surgery ride home to Maine

My Fox Boston
January 9, 2018

BOSTON -- A police officer went above and beyond the call of duty and showed the true heart and soul of Boston when he drove a family stranded at north Station home to Portland, Maine.

Kori Malenfant had recently undergone brain surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital several days ago. She was traveling back home with her parents, but a late arrival to North Station meant they missed their train back to Maine.

Nineteen-year-old Kori and her parents were looking for a place to store their luggage, and when she asked at the Boston Police Department’s North Station office she was met with a heartwarming gesture.

"The whole thing from the time we got into his vehicle until now is completely surreal,” Kori's mother Wendi Malenfant said.

As the Malenfants first walked toward Capt. Kelly McCormick’s cruiser, he offered to take them on a quick ride around Boston that turned out to be anything but quick continued far beyond city limits.

“Then all of a sudden I notice we are on the highway north and I said, ‘um, where are you taking us?’ He said, ‘well, I told you I was kidnapping you, I'm taking you to Portland. Isn’t that where your car is?’ And we were just floored,” Wendy Malenfant said.

McCormick said he could tell the family had been through a lot.

“They burst into tears and that was very emotional. They were just very tired, I could see it, and I just felt like they’re going to sit in North Station all night no matter what.

McCormick said compassion and personal experience compelled him to drive the family more than 100 miles to Portland, Maine.

He once donated a kidney to his wife for a transplant and has seen firsthand just how physically and emotionally draining a major operation and the post-op can be.

“Being in that moment is so exhausting. If you just make a small difference, it must have had a great effect on them, which is great, but we like to do that every day. Every officer wants to do that every day,” he said.

As for the family, they still can’t believe the kindness McCormick showed.

"We just didn't have words. We kept trying to thank him and it just didn't seem enough,” Wendy Malenfant said.