Pair want to thank life-saving Marine

By Diane Bell, UNION-TRIBUNE COLUMNIST

Not many mortals get called angels. But that's what Ellen Blash calls the unidentified Marine who appeared suddenly in a dark alley in Golden Hill at a very dark moment.

Her husband, Robert "Bobby" Blash, 61, who co-owned and ran the Beachcomber bar in Mission Beach in the 1970s and early '80s and is now a painting contractor and landlord, had collapsed while hoisting a love seat onto his truck at the former home of a tenant.

The renter, Will Riley, 36, ran to help but found that Blash had no pulse and wasn't breathing, so he immediately called 911. Riley began CPR, though he had never been formally trained to do so.

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