(Mercury News) – Officer Mike Roberson helped save Mary Ellen Cancilla’s life. Then he helped rebuild it.
It was due in part to Roberson’s persistence that officers this past summer found the 68-year-old Cancilla, weakened by radiation therapy, collapsed on her bedroom floor.
But as he looked around her cluttered, under-kept home, Roberson, a 17-year San Jose Police Department member, Air Force veteran, and long-active community volunteer, felt the need to do more.
He observed a home that had fallen far behind in upkeep, filled with decades of no-longer-used belongings and other accumulated items dating back to when Cancilla’s family moved into the home in the 1950s. He saw a cracked toilet, mold, and other detritus that struck a nerve with him.
Roberson knew Cancilla had narrowly escaped with her life when he and the officers found her on that fateful July day. He could not imagine a scenario where after all she had gone through in recovering, she would go back to a home in that condition.
Roberson, who runs a construction business on the side, decided again to go above and beyond. (It’s a personal theme that sometimes touches on the literal: He’s currently training to obtain his pilot’s license.)
And in doing so, he saved her again.
