In Loving Memory of Rick Eatough
I was struck with some sad news yesterday concerning a good friend…
First some background – in Spring of 2008, I finally responded to God’s call on my heart to reach out and love on some of the homeless community here in Austin. It was the perfect time of year for bike-riding, so I took my bike to work one day along with a bunch of sandwiches. During my lunch break I rode down to the intersection at 183 & Burnet, an intersection close to my office where many homeless folks flew their signs and camped out at night. I remember being nervous about what to say the first time I walked up to someone. I just went up to a guy holding a sign and was all, “hey, you hungry?” He smirked a little and replied with, “um, always!” He and I shared lunch together under the highway overpass and I quite enjoyed the time. In fact, I liked it so much that I went back out two days later and continued to go every Tuesday and Thursday for about a year and a half when I left the company that was in that area.
One of the first guys I met and certainly the guy who I became closest to was Rick. He had real bad diabetes and at the time I met him, had a real bad problem with drugs. Rick and I grew pretty close over the time we knew each other. I assisted in finding places for him to live other than under a bridge, helped him overcome the drug addiction, and at one point even literally saved his life. Once I quit my job in December, I stopped going to that intersection for a while and after only a month of being gone, went back on a Tuesday to find no one there. Repeated on Thursday then finally a third time a couple of weeks later – nobody. It was sad, but expected. The four or five guys I hung out with there had even mentioned that they didn’t make a lot of money at that intersection anymore and really only came there to hang out and eat lunch with me…which was pretty cool to hear. I had the opportunity of tracking Rick down a few times since then, but I haven’t been able to find him in a couple of months…
So yesterday I took my little man to lunch at Freebirds (he loves Chipotle rice and beans so I thought I’d expand his pallet a little) and afterward set out to find some of my old friends. Beth and I have talked about practical ways to start showing Jude that everyone matters and that everyone is the same in God’s eyes. Clearly, one way to do that is for him to be exposed to all types of people at a young age, rich/poor/black/white/cool/annoying/etc 
I did end up finding one of my old friends, Danny, who also happened to be Rick’s best friend. Upon walking up to him, his excitement to see me and to finally see Jude for the first time faded. He realized I probably hadn’t heard so he proceeded to tell me that Rick had passed a couple of months ago. His eyes welled up in telling me, despite having a little while to grieve. They had been through a ton of life together, getting each other’s backs, calling the ambulance on multiple occasions for each other, etc. I could tell Danny was feeling very lonely and had quite a bit of sorrow regarding Rick’s death. I could relate, albeit not as closely.
I’ll tell you, I had a wave of emotion yesterday afternoon. I saw Rick twice a week for a year and a half and there are a plethora of amazing stories from that time period. We had multiple chances to talk about faith and salvation as well as opportunities to pray together. Though I had a short period of guilt in wondering whether or not I said the right things or prayed the right prayers or spent enough time with him or helped him enough or whatever, ultimately I had to give that up to God and trust that He has Rick in His arms right now. I simply thanked God for the privilege of knowing Rick and asked Him to say “hi” for me. I sure hope that happened…
I have been deeply impacted, to say the least. I think this will stick with me for a while and will certainly change my perspective on a lot of things. I hope it pushes me to live better and love better. Rest in peace, Rick…and enjoy your heavenly feast and your new home!
Hi, my name is Morgan and I have type one diabetes… I was just wondering how Rick could be homeless and do drugs yet still live more than a month. I would think supplies would be really hard to get and inslulin even harder even if he had a needle to inject himself.
And I also wanted to say thanks, many people are afraid of the homeless and descourage trying to help. I don’t know why, but I have always wanted to help. Do you have any suggestions or comments that could help?
Thanks, have a nice week.
Blessings,
Morgan
The city of Austin takes pretty good care of the homeless in terms of hospital care. Rick was able to get medicine pretty regularly, his biggest issue was getting the testers.
In terms of suggestions, I say start with “yes”. Say to God, “if the answer is ‘yes’ to anything, what would you have me do?” He’s already given you the desire to help, you just need direction. Starting with a ‘yes’ is a good way to begin finding out that direction.