Father Strobel made a big impression on me. He was a great man. I’m reading his book now. It’s called My Journey Home: Kingdom of the Poor. I’m featured in the book in a few places. He really must have thought the world of me if he put me in his book.
You’ve heard the expression, “people tear up” when reading something sad. Well, there’s no such thing as tearing up. You tear down. And I’ve teared down while reading this.
It ain’t a cry, it’s a sadness. I knew the man well. We sung together. When the Room In The Inn shelter was open for the night, we’d all go up to the big brake room. Well, one time I was singing and here I heard another voice and I said who in the world is singing? He’s good! It was Father Strobel! He liked a lot of the songs I’d sing, so we’d sing a lot together.
When I first met Father Strobel, I was on crack cocaine and homeless. It was in 2007. When I met him he made such a big impression on me. He made my spiritual life more pure, more about helping people. In a way, I’ve never been free hearted. That means giving things away to people who need it. Now, sometimes I’m too free hearted!
When I met him, we had to go through an orientation to go out to a church through Room In The Inn. I was in what they call the Guest House for a lot of time. Then eventually I became a volunteer and started working in the Lobby helping getting folks in the busses. I’d be like the doorman telling people which bus was here, getting people water and other general errands that were called for that I could do because my health started getting bad after so long. Well, about six months before Father Strobel started getting real sick he said, “William, I’m dying. Will you pray for me?” I told him it would be an honor to pray for him. I still think it was an honor because the great man he was asking me? I didn’t consider myself that much at that time at all, but he did.
He seen things in me that I didn’t know, and now I know I got good in me. I know that some of the things I was accused of doing in the past, I didn’t do. To keep from serving a lot of time in prison, I pleaded guilty to some things, and I wished I hadn’t because maybe I could have fought it with a public defender, but they just took me off to jail and prison.
Father Strobel died of Parkinson’s and diabetes, but he never lost his faculties. He wrote this book the last six months of his life. He wasn’t going to. They had to talk him into it. They knew people would love to hear his story. You know, his mother got murdered by a homeless person. He didn’t get what they call a bad attitude though and he didn’t want them to execute the guy that killed her. He protested against it.
He was a very lovable person. I know he is one of the Lord’s angels up there and one of his favorite angels. This man was a true, true Christian. He was Catholic and I loved him to death and I do miss him.