Warning! The following story will upset you...
...or at least, it should, if your heart is full of compassion. Over the last 18 months I have been directing my "sermons" towards those who are the least among us: the homeless, the addicted, etc. This story, in Sunday June 10th's Minneapolis Star Tribune, broke my heart. Did it even have to happen? Read on:
Burned man found under Minneapolis bridge was homeless but loved
- Article by: NICOLE NORFLEET , Star Tribune
- Updated: June 9, 2012 - 9:51 PM
Family members are preparing to say goodbye to a 58-year-old man found severely burned under a Minneapolis bridge.
There near the corner stood his father, Rick, his long blondish grey
hair cascading down his back and his goatee hanging to the middle of his
chest, holding his usual cardboard sign that read, "Homeless Please
Help." Miller pulled over out of traffic, gave his father a few dollars
and told him he wanted him to meet his 2-year-old daughter, an
invitation that made his dad smile.
But a few days later, Richard "Rick" Johnson, 58, was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center after he suffered severe burns while camped out under a highway overpass.
His family planned to take him off life support on Sunday morning.
"I wish things would have been a little different," said Richard Miller, 38, on Saturday, who spent much of the day at the hospital with his family.
A little before midnight on May 29, emergency personnel responded to a report of a burn victim under the Interstate 394 bridge at Dunwoody Avenue, according to police reports. Miller said police told him that a man walking nearby heard screaming and found his father on fire.
His father was taken to the hospital with burns on about 70 percent of his body, Miller said. The lower half of his body had to be amputated, and he was placed under heavy sedation. He was also put on life support.
Preliminary police reports suggested that the incident may have been a suicide attempt, but family members said they don't believe that Johnson would have set himself on fire.
"I've always been concerned about his safety. I've always wondered how he was," Miller said.
He went out to the scene of the fire and spoke there with a friend of his father's who told him that another homeless man who disliked his father might have set him on fire. "He said he was going to get him," Miller said the man told him.
He said police have told the family that so far, there is no evidence of foul play. His father's clothes are being tested for accelerants, he said.
A police spokesman said no details of the case were available Saturday.
Johnson's sister, Barb Snyder, 64, of Anoka, said she believes the case isn't a high priority for police because he was homeless.
"To them, he's nobody," she said.
His family said Johnson chose to live on the streets even though relatives would have taken him in.
"It's not that he had to be," Miller said. "It's just that he wanted to."
He said he believed that his father just didn't want to be a burden to family members.
Johnson grew up in Bemidji as the youngest of 13 children, Snyder said. When he was a teenager, he dropped out of high school and traveled with his brothers to Minneapolis to find a job.
But life in Minneapolis wasn't easy. While her little brother found work here and there, he ended up living off and on the streets for years.
Still, despite his hardships, Snyder remembered her brother as an optimistic and caring man who loved animals.
Johnson's son agreed.
"He would give you the shirt off his back," Miller said.
While his father had been homeless for as long as he could remember and it was no secret that he had been a heavy drinker, Miller said people should not rush to judge those who are without places to live.
"There's people out there that love them," he said.
But a few days later, Richard "Rick" Johnson, 58, was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center after he suffered severe burns while camped out under a highway overpass.
His family planned to take him off life support on Sunday morning.
"I wish things would have been a little different," said Richard Miller, 38, on Saturday, who spent much of the day at the hospital with his family.
A little before midnight on May 29, emergency personnel responded to a report of a burn victim under the Interstate 394 bridge at Dunwoody Avenue, according to police reports. Miller said police told him that a man walking nearby heard screaming and found his father on fire.
His father was taken to the hospital with burns on about 70 percent of his body, Miller said. The lower half of his body had to be amputated, and he was placed under heavy sedation. He was also put on life support.
Preliminary police reports suggested that the incident may have been a suicide attempt, but family members said they don't believe that Johnson would have set himself on fire.
"I've always been concerned about his safety. I've always wondered how he was," Miller said.
He went out to the scene of the fire and spoke there with a friend of his father's who told him that another homeless man who disliked his father might have set him on fire. "He said he was going to get him," Miller said the man told him.
He said police have told the family that so far, there is no evidence of foul play. His father's clothes are being tested for accelerants, he said.
A police spokesman said no details of the case were available Saturday.
Johnson's sister, Barb Snyder, 64, of Anoka, said she believes the case isn't a high priority for police because he was homeless.
"To them, he's nobody," she said.
His family said Johnson chose to live on the streets even though relatives would have taken him in.
"It's not that he had to be," Miller said. "It's just that he wanted to."
He said he believed that his father just didn't want to be a burden to family members.
Johnson grew up in Bemidji as the youngest of 13 children, Snyder said. When he was a teenager, he dropped out of high school and traveled with his brothers to Minneapolis to find a job.
But life in Minneapolis wasn't easy. While her little brother found work here and there, he ended up living off and on the streets for years.
Still, despite his hardships, Snyder remembered her brother as an optimistic and caring man who loved animals.
Johnson's son agreed.
"He would give you the shirt off his back," Miller said.
While his father had been homeless for as long as he could remember and it was no secret that he had been a heavy drinker, Miller said people should not rush to judge those who are without places to live.
"There's people out there that love them," he said.
the last paragraph is the shocker; he had family who loved him. yet he died alone. This above all pains me, to die with no one present. Something to think about. Again, I say, walk in the shoes of another before you cast judgment. Better yet, cast no judgment at all.
ReplyDeleteand this could have been me, or any one of us for whom judgment has been cast. I have lived a life too f*cked up for words, yet because of you and your words, I was given a second chance! Yet how many are left out there....to die all alone? Please understand, if I could be sober forever, I would be. Do any one of you think I enjoy this craving for alcohol? Do you think I enjoy waking up with a hangover? It is NOT like in the movies where everyone pats you on the back and says, "yeah, its all good," because it isn't. You lose everything including your self respect! If you haven't read Rev Baum's book, "There but for the Grace of God (plus a few good friends and family) Go I," get it and read it!
ReplyDelete