Around the Town: Trying to Help Don Work

By Loretta Humble/Around the Town

I have an update for you on Don, our parolee friend who was released to my place in the country last November. Don had some pretty serious physical problems, including a tracheotomy and a stomach tube which were acquired due to cancer treatment he got in prison. Despite these handicaps, he was very eager—and able– to go to work and make something happen. He had the knowledge to set up a small sawmill which my friend Carl financed, and they had produced a few cedar chests. He had a small trailer to live in, and had started work on an apartment on the side of our workshop here so that he could work any time despite being on a monitor and severely restricted to his living quarters.

I got to see what a sorry job our criminal justice system does helping folks coming out of prison trying to start a new life. I’ve already complained through two columns about their turning him loose with no provision for his medical care. The other bad thing that happened to him was that the parole department over here never quite “got” him, and finally made him move away from a place in the country among friends, with good, meaningful work to be done. He now lives in Tyler where he shares a small duplex with a friend he met in prison. He has been there for several months now, with nothing to do but visit with his friend, watch television, and communicate with the outside world on a laptop I loaned him.

Although it seemed pretty heartless to move him from here, there are some plusses to his new location. For one thing, the folks in the parole department over there are seriously trying to help him, and even seem to like him, or at least have him convinced they do. He and the guy he rooms with get along real well, and help one another out. He finally has good medical care. He was feeling pretty bad for a while, so I was waiting to see how it he did before I got back to his story. Now they have his meds stabilized, and he seems to be doing quite well. But what has really got him feeling better is that the doctors have told him he has almost no chance of his cancer returning. The treatment he got in prison that fried his trachea apparently fried the cancer as well. So he wants to get busy living again. This brings us to the one problem with where he lives now. He still is very limited as to how much he can leave his residence. He wants to work, to produce, to make some kind of progress, but has had nothing whatsoever he could do.

So this weekend Carl and I went garage sale shopping. And we were in luck. We found a sale of the estate of George Barton Sr, who owned and operated the Fender Mender shop in Payne Springs for years and years. There were all kind of tools spread out all over the place. His grandchildren who were running it gave us some great deals. We got Don a band saw, a chop saw, and a miter saw—all electric– for $100. We also got him a circular saw online from Best of Machinery on sale for $60. For $20 more we got two work tables, and a bunch of hand tools. We took them to Don yesterday. One good thing about where he lives now is that they have a large shaded yard with a patio where he can set up a workshop of sorts. The plan is to get him fixed so that he can make bird houses or other small items until he can get loose to make bigger and better things.

The man wants to work and we are going to do our best to help him do it. I’ll keep you posted.