Big heart needs rescue

Richard Ring is counting the days until his new life begins.

True to form, he's keeping busy as he does this, even though he has spent most of the past two months in a bed at Tufts Medical Center. The executive director of Travelers Aid Family Services has his laptop and a cellphone that rarely stops ringing with calls from friends checking up on him.

One of Boston's great advocates for the homeless suffers from cardiomyopathy. That's a scientific way of saying his heart barely pumps on its own. He's on the list for a heart transplant, near the top.

"The days do drag on," he said yesterday. "Not that I'm counting, but I've been here 65 of the past 73 days. I'm not complaining. They're giving me a second chance at life."

His new life promises to be markedly different from the current one. While Ring is expected to lead a normal life, it will not include running an agency. At the premature age of 62, he's being forced to retire by health issues. That is a shame, because his 40 years at Travelers Aid and Pine Street Inn have played a major role in pushing Bostonians to care about homelessness.

Ring is a lifelong athlete who attended Holy Cross on a football scholarship, but that didn't spare him from heart problems. His congestive heart failure was first diagnosed three years ago. For a while it was controlled by medication, but he took a sharp turn for the worse late last year.

By November, the short walk from his office to South Station had become an ordeal, one that could require two stops to catch his breath.

He was in the hospital in January. He was discharged after open heart surgery to install a pump. An infection forced him back into the hospital eight days later, and he'll be there until he gets his new heart.

When that will be is uncertain. His cardiologist, Dr. David DeNofrio, says it will be a matter of "weeks, not months" before a donor heart becomes available. That is about as precise as the timetable gets, because of the demands for donor organs.

The cause of Ring's heart failure is unclear, the doctor said.

"We really don't have a cause for why his heart got weak over time," DeNofrio said.

"Despite our best efforts to treat him, he hasn't gotten better. He's a great guy. We enjoy taking care of him, and we're hoping for the best."

Ring would rather talk about homelessness than about himself. Travelers Aid, which he has run for the past 12 years, wasn't an agency for the homeless when he was appointed to run it. It was founded, eons ago, to assist travelers who found themselves stranded without cash. But those aren't the only people who need shelter now.

At Pine Street, Ring was mainly focused on providing shelter for individuals; at Travelers he zealously took on the mission of helping families get out of homelessness.

To that end, Travelers has renovated houses in Dorchester and East Boston, renting them to families hoping to get back on their feet.

"In looking back over 40 years, I've seen incredible generosity," Ring said. "I've also seen conditions get more and more difficult for the poor. When I started at Pine Street, there were run-down neighborhoods people could live in cheaply. They aren't there anymore."

A notorious workaholic, he says his priorities are changing. "I've had plenty of time to reflect, and all that's really important is your family and friends. I just want to embrace my family and my friends, and let the chips fall where they may."

Any concerns he might have about winding down his distinguished career are clearly less important than the battle of saving his life, and making the most of the next chapter.

"I don't know what I'm going to do [after the transplant]," he told me. "But I know I'm going to enjoy it."

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com