When a man died on a Woodland Park bench in July, we carried a brief in our Around Kentucky round-up the next day. It noted that the death occurred during the Woodland Jubilee concert, but it didn’t have the man’s name, or anything about his cause of death. Often in the day-to-day grind of journalism, the story would have ended there. But in this case, the short item sparked a conversation between Features Editor Sally Scherer and reporter Amy Wilson. They wondered who the man was, how he died, and they contemplated the contradiction between his death and the otherwise festive atmosphere in the park. Many times, the best stories emerge from simple questions like these.
They passed on their idea to staff writer Linda Blackford, who began making calls to piece together the story of this otherwise anonymous death. Linda’s emotional story, Alcoholic anonymous, ran on the front page Sunday. Judging by the response Linda has received, the compelling story of the life and death of Donald Bowling touched a chord with readers, many of whom have also been affected by alcohol abuse. I wanted to share excerpts from some of those emails:
“Thank you for such a moving story ‘Alcoholic anonymous.’ I have seen so many people, including my mother, battle this horrific disease. Thank you again for making people stop and think. This was a man, an abused child, a brother, a father. He was, most important of all, a human being who lived in our midst and was sick, alone, troubled, and because of you-not forgotten.”
“Like many other Lexingtonians I sat and enjoyed the music that night in Woodland Park. Not long after I arrived at the park and spread out my blanket I noticed a scrappy older man sitting in the shade not 30 ft. from our spot. We ate our fried chicken, drank a couple beers and carried on like everything was fine. I don’t feel guilty or selfish for not acknowledging the man. He was sitting Indian style in the grass nodding his head to the sounds of the banjo and fiddle, just like everyone else. When my girlfriend and I began to throw Frisbee he kept an eye on us. He seemed to be impressed with our skills and perhaps wanted to join the game. After a short while he moved on and he never crossed my mind again. Reading your story of his life and unfortunate death brings to the surface feelings I normally don’t experience. The plight of homeless and alcoholic people in the US is perhaps the most significant problem facing our society. Yet, we turn our heads, regularly, to the obvious problem instead of facing it head on. If one person would’ve asked that man if he was OK or offered him some food, he may be alive today. Next time I hope I act differently when confronted with someone who obviously is worse off than I am.”
“I was very touched by your article in last Sundays paper, about the man that died on the park bench. I am reminded of a proverb, if not for the grace of god walks i.i can remember very well waking up all sorts of places in my long struggle with alcohol. I could have died the same way alone amongst many.but by the grace of god one night I heeded that small still voice and lay’ ed down my tormenter. it was one week before 9/11/2001,and while the rest of America dealt with the demons of terrorism, I dealt with my own inner demons. Since that time I have gotten my ged married gotten a good job and recently started college. All through the grace and love of a loving creator who saw fit to use the useless. Thank you for a tribute to a man who died amongst many whom no one was even aware of, they need to know it could have been them, except for the grace of God.”
“Wow. What a wonderful article. You have done a huge service to this man’s memory with your tribute-eulogy. Thank you.”
“Certainly a poignant & tragic story. A young man dies on a park bench while no more than 50 yards away people are enjoying music, picnicking and having fun. I’ve certainly seen homeless guys passed out in parks before and I don’t go near them. I’ve often seen them in that benched, shady area at Woodland. Maybe volunteers from the Hope Center (or a similar organization) could routinely check known ‘crash sites’ for addicts, alcoholics, etc. Police could do this duty, but likely this would just discourage drunks and addicts from frequenting such areas.”
“This article provides a great deal of information about both Mr. Bowling and the resources available in the Lexington area for persons afflicted as he was. The article is written beautifully and respectfully of a subject which seldom receives either such treatment and of a person who likely received little such consideration in life. Other than from the article Mr. Bowling was not known to me but it is likely your writing is a comfort to those who did know and love him. For what it might mean to you, please accept my thanks for your sensitive handling of the topic and my regards for your talent.”
“I would just like to applaud your front page story in the Sunday paper. I am a recovering addict myself so I can truly relate to this story and my heart goes out to Donald and his family. I will be saving this article so that I can try to help other addicts and alcoholics understand what their fate could very well be if they do not do everything they can to get help with their addictions. I would like to be able to email this story to some of those friends that need to have their lives put into perspective because I fear that their fate may not be much different from Donald’s if they do not seek professional help with their addictions… I believe that you have really done a wonderful thing by raising the general public’s awareness about people like Donald who they otherwise may continue to ignore. While I would not wish his situation on anyone if something happens like this to someone else I pray that they will not ignore and overlook another person who might have been saved if someone had just shown some concern for their fellow human being.”
Let us know what you thought of the story by emailing Linda or me.
Peter Baniak
metro editor
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