R.I. homeless who died in 2010 remembered at memorial
By Paul Davis
PROVIDENCE — Some owned homes once. Some were proud parents. Still others were good friends — kind, funny, warm-hearted.
But hard luck, illness, drug use or drinking problems plagued the 48 men and women remembered at Beneficent Congregational Church Wednesday morning. At some point, they all became homeless.
As a soft snow fell, more than 100 people mourned the homeless who died last year, while volunteers and friends — some of them homeless, too — called out their names and lit candles at the Weybosset Street church.
“Each name had a unique story, but destiny called … their time’s done,” said David Eisenberger, homeless for nearly two years. The 58-year-old read two poems during the hour-long service, including one called “The Sadness.”
For more than 10 years, the homeless and others have gathered each year to remember the dead, said Jim Ryczek, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless .
The population has been growing in recent years because of a bad economy and high unemployment, he said.
While it’s important to remember the dead, “There are thousands more out there who are experiencing the pain and suffering of homelessness,” Ryczek said. “We need to remember them as well.”
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