New London, Norwich remember homeless who died
Stuart Long loved eagles and the scenery of the New London City Pier. After living at the New London Homeless Hospitality Center, he volunteered there as a cook and collected plates decorated with eagles, one of his friends said.
Brian Tackling worked hard to get his GED, then a certificate allowing him to serve food and then, later, a culinary certificate. He worked at the Bank Street Market making grinders.
"He made a big grinder ... he was always so generous and so grateful," said a volunteer from the shelter who knew him.
Long and Tackling died this past year — Long just a few months ago at his Green Street apartment — and number among the 16 homeless or formerly homeless people in New London who died in 2016.
All were remembered Wednesday evening by friends, family and the staff who worked with them during a service at Engaging Heaven church in New London.
Co-sponsored by the New London Homeless Hospitality Center and St. Francis House, the service offered an opportunity for people to speak or write down a memory about those who had died, to sing songs and light a candle in their memory.
In Norwich, a similar memorial service was hosted by Generations Family Health Center Inc., which runs a homeless health care outreach program, was held Wednesday evening at St. Vincent de Paul Place soup kitchen.
The events are held annually on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, to symbolize the difficult nights that homeless people must survive.
During the New London ceremony, New London Homeless Hospitality Center shelter manager Tony Szramoski, himself formerly a guest at the shelter, read out each name and shared memories of moving guests at the shelter in and out of housing.
"You look at all these people, and look at these names and it's real ... you can see their faces and hear their voices," Szramoski said.
"It's been a rough year at the shelter," added Laura Edelstein who also works at the hospitality center.
The list has grown from a handful of deaths that the shelters knew of in 2006. While the numbers are higher, staff said it means they have become more connected to homeless and formerly homeless people in the area. In the past it was difficult to confirm when someone from the community had died when their obituaries don't run in the newspaper.
Karmen Rose, a former resident of the shelter, said she comes each year to remember the people she became acquainted with. She and others at the event said often the names on the list come as a surprise.
"It's nice ... to have a little moment to remember them," she said.
Despite the long list, a bright spot this year was that the shelters have been able to find housing for more people, and almost all of the people on the list this year in New London were housed, New London Homeless Hospitality Center Executive Director Catherine Zall said.
"In the early years most people were dying outside ... . It's a sea change," she said.
The Norwich candlelight and prayer ceremony honored six formerly homeless men who died in 2016. Four of the men were in housing at the time of their deaths. Frank Watson, 63, however, was living in a shelter run by Reliance Health of Norwich when he was struck and killed by a car on Sept. 16 on Washington Street in downtown Norwich. And Scott Marsie, 50, who died Sept. 17, was living in a shelter.
Shane Storey, 40; Robert Royal, 51; Robert Carlton Vancedarfield, 56, and Jim Skelley, 65, all of Norwich, also were remembered in Wednesday's ceremony.
Norwich Human Services Director Lee Ann Gomes brought a positive light to the event, recounting the changes in the past 13 years in the state and region since Norwich established a Community Care Team to address needs of homeless people.
In 1998, Gomes said, four people died who had been living on the street in Norwich. Efforts to house people quickly have paid off, she said. This year, there are only six chronically homeless adults identified in all of New London County, and four of them will be housed shortly.
Judi Gaudet, site manager at the Norwich Generations site, asked the nearly 50 people in attendance at the memorial ceremony to step outside the dining hall for a brief portion of the ceremony prior to the fundraiser dinner to benefit the soup kitchen.
"If you see someone who's homeless," Gaudet said, "shake their hand and ask if there is anything you can do for them."
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