(Editor’s note: Richard LeMieux will speak Dec. 9 in Kent. Register by Dec. 6 to attend this luncheon event through the Kent Kiwanis. Additional information follows the story.)
Richard LeMieux, by anyone’s standards, had it all.
“All” meaning a home on the water, boats, trips to Paris.
“I had all the toys a 56-year-old was supposed to have – I thought,” said LeMieux, now a deceptively young-looking 67, clad in a purple beret and a turtleneck, speaking over a slab of pie Tuesday at the Renton IKEA store.
But fate, God, or the universe – whatever you choose to call it – had a different plan for LeMieux, who worked his way up from a reporting job in the Midwest to ownership of a publishing company in the Northwest.
In 2002, the toys, and nearly all the pieces of LeMieux’s successful life – including his wife – were gone for good, leaving him with nothing but a van, a dog, and a dire sense of failure. His publishing business had been vaporized by an Internet-driven market. And nearly everything that it bought – right down to the pictures on his walls – was sucked down the rabbit hole with it.
“There was no salvaging anything,” LeMieux said, of the bankruptcy and divorce that marked the end of his old life. “I would learn about depression – about withdrawing from the world. Lost, alone, frightened, angry. Unable to solve even the smallest problem.”
Broke and desperate, LeMieux eked out a fragile existence, moving his van from parking lot to parking lot and scrounging what food he could. The van was where he slept every night with his dog, Willow. The fluffy white Bichon Frise dog, which his wife originally wanted, but who chose LeMieux as her keeper, was his only companion.
And on Christmas Day 2002, as a destitute LeMieux walked onto the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, determined to jump, it was Willow who pulled him back from the brink.
He had left the little dog in his van, parked near the bridge, with food, water and a note, asking that whoever found her, to please give her a good home.
As he stood on the bridge preparing to die, the roar of traffic blotting out any other sounds, LeMieux swore he could hear that dog barking.
“I went out on that bridge to end my life,” LeMieux said. “But in my mind, I could hear my dog barking in my car.
“I ran back to my van, to the only thing that I loved. That lifeline was a little, 9 1/2-pound dog.”
LeMieux had stepped back into the world of the living, thanks to a dog who protectively followed him as if she were his shadow.
After that, life somehow started getting better.
LeMieux opted to park his van the next night in a Salvation Army parking lot in Bremerton. When he woke the next morning, he could hear people lining up at the soup kitchen there. He joined the line, Willow in tow, and realized something. The people standing with him – those people that as a kid he thought were “bums” – were like him. They were real people, with stories and lives. They were interested in his story, too.
LeMieux realized he was no longer alone.
“I walked into a soup kitchen and looked into the eyes of the homeless,” he said.
Seated that morning with a couple of men who laughed about the soup kitchen’s “mystery meat,” LeMieux started to regain some of his old self.
“I laughed too,” he said. “It was the first time in six months that I laughed.”
That was the first of many days LeMieux ate at the Salvation Army soup kitchen – “Sally’s Place,” as he called it. In addition to filling his stomach, the meals and the camaraderie started to give him back his humanity.
“It was a healing process – I made a lot of friends,” LeMieux said. “Besides a plate full of food, they gave me a plate full of hope.”
He also realized the truth about being homeless. It’s not about failing. It’s about struggling – and often feeling hopeless from living in grinding poverty day after day. LeMieux witnessed both the struggles and the hopelessness.
“I learned a lot,” the former high-rolling businessman said, of the people with whom he shared meals and fellowship. “They just need a home – they’re just like me. They’re mothers, fathers, grandmothers, uncles, sisters, nieces, nephews.”
LeMieux paused a moment.
“I found the real heroes I’d been looking for all my life.”
With continued help from his friends at “Sally’s Place,” and the generosity he discovered from area church members, LeMieux started doing one thing he knew how to do well. He began to write.
He wrote about his experiences and the friends he was making. He also wrote about the outrageous injustice he saw – how he watched people losing their hopes and dreams, left behind by society.
LeMieux today is a published author. That book he wrote – mostly while sitting at picnic tables wherever he parked his van – is called “Breakfast at Sally’s.” It’s now a best-seller that has been lauded by the New York Times as having “a ring of truth and an uplifting message that endures.”
LeMieux sees that book as the outcome of what a good reporter does: Bearing witness. In this case, to a terrible circumstance he considers a blot on American character and dignity.
“I had to write about it,” he said, of experiencing homelessness, and watching good people suffer.
“In a country like ours, it is a national disgrace, and we’re allowing it to happen,” he added, of the increasing numbers of people pushed out of their homes and onto the streets.
There’s plenty of money in America.
“There will be 45 (college football) bowl games this season,” LeMieux said. “Billions of dollars will be spent watching someone kick a football around. Who’s paying for all that?”
He paused.
“The same people who don’t care enough to change the world.”
LeMieux now travels the country to put a personal stamp, a face, on the epidemic of homelessness. He’ll share his message to anyone who will listen. But he’s really excited when he gets to speak with young people. They are one of the best hopes for eradicating homelessness, when it’s their turn to run the country, he said.
In his talks and in his book, LeMieux sends out a personal challenge to his audience: Do something and do it now. One person can make a difference, he said.
“I’m begging,” he said of his call to action. “Just like I did in front of that grocery store.”
It’s time for a serious gut check, he added.
“Is the soul of America really the quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts? Is it Beyonce? Is that really who we want it to be?” he asked.
“Or is it ‘little ol’ me,’ part of something big?”
Hear him speak
Who: Richard LeMieux, author of ‘Breakfast at Sally’s,’ and an
advocate for the homeless
When: Noon Dec. 9; register by Dec. 6
Where: Golden Steer Restaurant, 23826 104th Ave. S.E., Kent
Why: Part of event called ‘Hope for Families 2010,’ organized by Kent Kiwanis to support local struggling families.
Admission: $5 per person, provided they bring any new or gently used donation of sleeping bags, jackets, gloves or hats.
Call: Sally Goodgion at 253-852-0880, or e-mail RSVPs to catalyst
travel@hotmail.com.
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