Some tickets not needed

You may remember Theresa Marie Freitas. She's the 44-year-old mentally retarded woman who converted her mother's house in the North End into a shrine to her beloved Boston Red Sox.

First, the good news. There are a lot of good people out there, and last spring, after they read about Theresa Marie's devotion to the Olde Towne Team, and Theresa Marie's mother's devotion to her, they flooded the Freitas family with offers of free tickets. Theresa Marie got to a couple of games.

Now, the bad news. At the second game she went to, in July, Theresa Marie was supposed to meet Coco Crisp, one of her favorites. But something or somebody got mixed up, and she was left standing, waiting by the dugout, in the hot sun, for hours.

Now, the worst news. Theresa Marie, who has ovarian cancer, has taken a turn for the worse and she's off chemo. She's getting hospice care at her mother's house, and her sister, Michelle, has come down from New Hampshire to help out.

Now, the predictable news. Michelle's car has been getting tagged like a big white wall at a graffiti artist convention. She most often has parked in garages, and has racked up about $1,800 in fees since mid-July. But sometimes you're needed immediately and you park where you can, and in the North End, that usually means a "residents only" spot and the ticket magically appears.

Because Michelle's car has New Hampshire plates, the locals call the Transportation Department and the parking enforcement officers rush to the car like flies to . . . um, jelly. She's even been ticketed when parked in spots designated for visitors.

She approached some parking enforcement officers, and I'm sure you'll be shocked, but they were not sympathetic.

She called the Transportation Department, and she called the mayor's office, and no one called back.

So she went to City Hall, where, aside from when the City Council is barring the public from its meetings, it's all about customer service.

"I went to the Transportation Department and I asked could I have a temporary parking permit, on compassionate grounds, and they told me they don't have those because too many dishonest people would get a doctor's note and abuse it. And I said, but I'm not lying, my sister is really sick, she's dying, and I'm trying to help my mother, and they said, 'Sorry.' "

Well, at least they said sorry. Which is more than she's getting from the parking enforcement officers, who have slapped about $600 worth of tickets on Michelle's car in just a couple of months. She's tried to explain her plight, to no avail. She's watched as residents who are parked illegally don't get tickets, and she nods when the parking enforcement officers say they try to be lenient with residents because it's so hard to find a legal spot in the North End. But she asks why there are no exceptions in cases like hers.

You want some irony? Among those who stepped forward to give Theresa Marie some Red Sox tickets was none other than our illustrious mayor, the great Tom Menino. Now the mayor's minions are giving the Freitas family more tickets. Those orange ones.

Menino may be thin-skinned and may have spent too many years without any real threat to his job in that nice office overlooking Faneuil Hall. But he is, when you get down to it, a good guy, and he showed the heart that's made him such a durable pol by reacting generously to Theresa Marie's plight.

Too bad his Revenue Enhancement Department, er, Transportation Department, is designed to operate in such an arbitrary, heartless manner.

If Michelle Freitas wheeled her sister's hospice bed onto the sidewalk, then ducked back in to find the keys she left on the kitchen table, does anyone seriously doubt there would be a ticket hanging off the bedpost by the time she returned?

In this town, the orange is all about the green.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com