lisa53
Senior Member
Some backstory:
There's a man in my small town who is known as the village drunk. Jay's a very kind person and spends his winters shoveling snow for the elderly (including me) for a ridiculously low price (which I suspect is the price of a 6 pack of the cheapest beer). He does a great job, though. He is a veteran, on SSI, and can often be seen walking around town (no driver's license) with his can of beer. He's harmless, but he is doing harm to himself, of course. He looks like he's in his 70s, but actually he's in his late 50s. He's more to be pitied than scolded, as the old song goes. Periodically he will knock on my door to say hello or stop to chat when we cross paths on the rail trail.
More backstory:
This spring I had a problem (first time since I've lived here) with trespassers on my property. Teens were littering, talking loudly (with language peppered with the F word), and ripping branches off trees...I guess the lack of supervision during covid has made them feral. I had to post my property and tell them I would call the police if I saw them again.
So the other day:
GF and I returned from camping and decided to walk down to the lower field to check on the gardens. Just as we started to go down the hill, who do we meet coming up? Jay! He's extremely inebriated, worse than I ever have seen him (and he's always under the influence). He looks terrible. He says, "I'm sorry, I just needed a little nap, so I went to lie down at the edge of your woods." He lives nearby, so I asked why he didn't just go home. He says he didn't think he could walk up the hill to his house. I pointed out the no trespassing sign and told him I couldn't let him use my property for a nap, but he was in no condition to reason with.
He's been looking generally worse this summer, and last winter he slipped and fell down a slope at the edge of the rail trail. He was drunk, hurt his leg, and fell asleep apparently...long enough to get frostbite.
I'm truly afraid I'll walk down to the field next spring after the snow melts and find him dead and clutching a can of beer.
Local police are well aware of Jay. I doubt they would do anything except lock him up for a day or two (at most), and I don't think that would make much difference in Jay's behavior.
GF (who is an alcoholic in recovery for 34 years, and who worked as a mental health visiting nurse for the VA) says there's probably nothing I or anyone can do for Jay unless he decides he wants some help. I suspect he's right...It makes me sad that such a nice man is struggling just to live because of his drinking, and I think his general health is getting noticeably worse lately.
What do you think? How do I respond to this situation?
There's a man in my small town who is known as the village drunk. Jay's a very kind person and spends his winters shoveling snow for the elderly (including me) for a ridiculously low price (which I suspect is the price of a 6 pack of the cheapest beer). He does a great job, though. He is a veteran, on SSI, and can often be seen walking around town (no driver's license) with his can of beer. He's harmless, but he is doing harm to himself, of course. He looks like he's in his 70s, but actually he's in his late 50s. He's more to be pitied than scolded, as the old song goes. Periodically he will knock on my door to say hello or stop to chat when we cross paths on the rail trail.
More backstory:
This spring I had a problem (first time since I've lived here) with trespassers on my property. Teens were littering, talking loudly (with language peppered with the F word), and ripping branches off trees...I guess the lack of supervision during covid has made them feral. I had to post my property and tell them I would call the police if I saw them again.
So the other day:
GF and I returned from camping and decided to walk down to the lower field to check on the gardens. Just as we started to go down the hill, who do we meet coming up? Jay! He's extremely inebriated, worse than I ever have seen him (and he's always under the influence). He looks terrible. He says, "I'm sorry, I just needed a little nap, so I went to lie down at the edge of your woods." He lives nearby, so I asked why he didn't just go home. He says he didn't think he could walk up the hill to his house. I pointed out the no trespassing sign and told him I couldn't let him use my property for a nap, but he was in no condition to reason with.
He's been looking generally worse this summer, and last winter he slipped and fell down a slope at the edge of the rail trail. He was drunk, hurt his leg, and fell asleep apparently...long enough to get frostbite.
I'm truly afraid I'll walk down to the field next spring after the snow melts and find him dead and clutching a can of beer.
Local police are well aware of Jay. I doubt they would do anything except lock him up for a day or two (at most), and I don't think that would make much difference in Jay's behavior.
GF (who is an alcoholic in recovery for 34 years, and who worked as a mental health visiting nurse for the VA) says there's probably nothing I or anyone can do for Jay unless he decides he wants some help. I suspect he's right...It makes me sad that such a nice man is struggling just to live because of his drinking, and I think his general health is getting noticeably worse lately.
What do you think? How do I respond to this situation?
It truly could. 
