“When people come up to me and say ‘It’s good to see you’ they really don’t know what that means,” 71-year-old Phant Long said.

Long said just 10 days ago he nearly died after an average morning of breakfast and two “rounds” at Salisbury Mall.

This morning, Long returned to the place where he almost lost his life and surprised the “guardian angel” who helped save him.

Long presented Toni Kenerly, a nurse with Dr. Donald Lomax’s office, a bundle of roses this morning at the place where she helped resuscitate him.

Kenerly was also walking that Friday morning when Long collapsed on a bench.

“We were probably at the food court area, and he (Long) was up near Goody’s, when someone came running down and told us something was wrong with a man,” Kenerly said.

“He told me this morning he didn’t feel bad when he sat down,” she said.

But when Kenerly reached him at the bench 10 days ago, she couldn’t find a pulse.

“I said we had to get him on the floor, so some of the men helped me do that,” she said.

“He didn’t have a pulse, but I had a friend check because I wanted to make sure, that is something that you just want to be there.”

Kenerly began cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“One of the first responders, I think his name is Jeff ... got there real quick. I think he was on his way to eat breakfast and he heard the call.

“And the EMS (Emergency Medical Services), they got there, it seemed like, in a few minutes,” she said.

And together, all of the emergency responders helped Long regain a normal pulse rate.

“I had just recertified in July in CPR, I used to teach it at the Y about 20 years ago. It’s not something you ever completely forget, though,” she said.

Officials say Long went into cardiac arrest. Salisbury fire and rescue personnel arrived momentarily, and Capt. Chris Sorrell and fire control specialists Larry Craver and Chipper Thomas began using their department’s defibrillator.

“It’s all everybody can do,” Thomas said. “I am really not sure who was doing what, there is so much to be done and you all are working to save this person.”

The Salisbury responders shocked Long twice with their defibrillator and administered oxygen and chest compressions.

Then Rowan CountyEmergency Medical Services personnel Joseph Freeze and Derek Tilley, along with EMS manager Beth Connell, who was driving by the mall at the time, arrived with a paddle defibrillator.

“We hooked their defibrillator up, which is a lot more advanced,” Thomas said.

From there, Emergency Medical Services transported Long to Rowan Regional Medical Center where doctors got him stabilized.

Later, an ambulance took Long, with neighbor Dr. Brian Fazia, to Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte.There, Fazia and Dr. David Cox performed a heart catheterization on him.

On Aug. 21, three days after Long collapsed, Dr. Marks Kremers of Mid-Carolina Cardiology performed a chest implantable cardioverter defibrillator for Long’s irregular heartbeat. He left for home the next day.

Long gave everyone involved a card of appreciation.

“I can’t thank these people enough. I really don’t know how many people were actually involved, but I am certainly grateful that they were there,” he said.

From Rick Yost, the telecommunicator who took the 911 calls, to Fazia, who rode with him in the ambulance to Presbyterian and later performed the heart catheterization, Long is truly indebted.

“Everyone was at the right place at the right time, and I am still here because of that,”Long said.

Kenerly said Long’s brother kept her informed on Long’s condition all week.

Long’s brother “even gave me a guardian angel pin, and I said, ‘All he (Long) owes me is a big hug,’ ” she said.

She certainly didn’t expect the roses this morning. “I was not prepared for it at all. It was great to see him,” she said.

“I told him ‘I think it took someone else over us all too,’ ” she said.

Kenerly said, “I’m certainly not a hero at all. I just did what anyone else would have done.”