A Polk County woman who says she’s terminally ill got more than just a call for service when she called deputies out to her house.
Diana Marchione says she’s been battling lung cancer for the past year and hasn’t been given long to live.
“It could be any day now," Marchione said. "It spread. They took part of my lung out last October and I went through four months of chemo -- eight hour sessions. Now it’s in my chest and my spine.”
Marchione said her husband left her without any food or money. She called deputies to report the feud but got a different kind of surprise instead.
“The deputies came and saw I had no food and out of the kindness of their heart, they went and bought me food,” said Marchione.
“From a law enforcement perspective, there weren’t any crimes committed," said Polk County Sheriff Deputy, Brian Kelser. "There wasn’t really any way we could help her in that but we didn’t just want to leave her here with nothing.”
Kesler said he and the two other responding deputies, Gwen Clark and Maria Catello, didn’t think twice about helping Marchione.
“I mean if it was my grandma, I wouldn’t want somebody to just leave her and say there’s nothing we can do for you,” Kelser said.
The three deputies used money out of their own pockets to get Marchione what she needed.
“There’s a grocery store right down the street: Aldi," Polk County Deputy Gwen Clark said. "She said that’s where she typically buys her groceries, and she was talking about a few things she likes to eat so we just went down there and grabbed a couple things.”
It’s a gesture Marchione says is making her good days outweigh the bad. A gesture that these deputies say gave new meaning to protecting and serving.
The deputy's superiors say they had no idea about their kind act until Marchione contacted Bay News 9 for a story.